Suvarnabhumi Airport's runway repair to be complete shortly

SAMUT PRAKAN, July 16 (TNA) - Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) reported on Monday that a 1,620-meter section of the eastern runway of the country's main Suvarnabhumi International Airport will be ready for services within this month. The AOT management informed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that an 800-metre-long section of the Suvarnabhumi Airport's eastern runway will be first reopened on July 18 and the total 1,620-meter section of the runway, which is under repair, will resume its service by the end of this month. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met the management of the AOT, the Suvarnabhumi International Airport and Transport Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan when she visited the airport Monday morning. After the discussion, Jarupong told journalists that the prime minister also asked about damage on the Suvarnabhumi Airport's western runway and the AOT management replied that the damage was limited to only the surface of the runway and there was not a structural problem. The prime minister ordered concerned authorities to maintain radar services of at the country's main airport, after its collapse early last month. The prime minister also ordered the setting up of a committee to solve problems at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, headed by AOT chairman Air Chief Marshal Sumeth Phomanee and comprised representatives from the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Co and Thai Airways International. Regarding long-term solutions to congestion at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Jarupong acknowledged that there is a project to build the third runway, and that AOT was told to speed up paying compensation for local dwellers who suffer from noise pollution from the existing runways of the Suvarnabhumi Airport to prevent their opposition to the construction of the third runway. The AOT management, meanwhile, reported that about 60 per cent of the affected people have already received compensation and the payment for the rest should be finished within next year.#END