U-tapao Airport Upgrade Set To Begin Next Year

[cuddleypete]

U-Tapao airport upgrade set to begin next year

Scheduled for completion in 2012

Ariyawat Nuamsawat

Work to transform U-Tapao-Pattaya International Airport into a modern international air hub could begin early next year, after the government approved a 995 million baht budget to upgrade the Sattahip facility.

Rear Adm. Surapong Aiyasanon, deputy director of the U-Tapao-Pattaya International Airport, explains the redevelopment plan to Pichet U-thai Watananon, director of the Pattaya Public Works Department.

Procurement plans for the military-run airport are expected to be submitted to the government within two months. Once approved, construction will take approximately 18 months, said Thai Royal Navy officials, who estimated work would be complete by 2012 at the latest.

Plans call for construction of a 25,200 sq. meter passenger terminal capable of handling 1,500 passengers per hour, greatly increasing the current capacity of the existing 4,280 sq. meter facility. New parking facilities, fuel depot, fire-fighting systems, x-ray machines and improvements to other equipment and landscaping are also planned.

While upgrades to U-Tapao have been talked about for years, it wasn’t until yellow-shirted anti-government demonstrators shut down Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang international airports in November that the need for a third modern facility became clear. Because the facility normally handles only about 30 commercial and military flights a day, thousands of passengers trying to flee Thailand were subjected to six-hour waits after landing, check-in lines stretching into the parking lot, insufficient food and backed up toilets.

“The U-Tapao development plan came from the government, which realizes there is a need to develop it to be a backup airport in case of an emergency situation in Bangkok, as well as to drive future tourism,” said airport Deputy Director Rear Adm. Surapong Aiyasanon following a May 27 planning meeting with the Pattaya Public Works Department, Department of Civil Aviation and Thai Airways International.

Surapong said the aviation department along with military engineers will prepare the procurement plan and submit it to the Airports of Thailand Public Co. Ltd. board in two months. Officials hope to begin construction in the second quarter of 2010, he said.

http://www.pattayamail.com/current/news.shtml#hd2

[Chang_paarp]

Let the tea money contracts begin!

[moo9]

More Antonov's and Tupolev's can't wait to touch down :-)