Don Mueang Airport reopened after flood-related closure

BANGKOK, March 6 (TNA) - Bangkok reopened the domestic Don Mueang Airport Monday to serve commercial flights, after an about four-month closure due to a flooding late last year. The first flight, DD 9250, of Nok Air, a subsidiary budget airline of Thai Airways International (THAI), the national flag carrier, departed at 6am. to the northeastern Udon Thani province. Other domestic airlines, namely Orient Thai Airlines and Solar Air, will return to the airport in the near future. Passengers have continually arrived at the Don Mueang Airport for check-ins, as Nok Air alone operates 80 flights daily. Shops and other facilities have now resumed their operations, reviving good businesses at the Don Mueang Airport. Airports of Thailand Public Co., Ltd (AOT) President Aniruth Thanomkulabutr said that ground services at the Don Mueang Airport have also resumed smoothly, including navigation, runways, taxiways, check-ins and facilities in its passenger terminals. Aniruth told reporters that capacity of the Don Mueang Airport will be expanding to serve 16 million passengers annually in the coming years to relieve traffic at Thailand's main Suvarnabhumi International Airport, which was designed to serve 47-48 million passengers yearly and is becoming more congestion. Besides, the AOT chief acknowledged that AOT and the Royal Thai Air Force are working together to build a 13.5-kilometer-long and three-meter-high concrete dyke to prevent floods, improving water pumps and dredging a reservoir at the airport, which will increase the water discharge rate at the airport to one million cubic meters per day, saying that the 100-million-baht project was set to be completed this May, timely for the upcoming rainy season. (TNA)