Airports of Thailand will begin construction on a new domestic passenger terminal at Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2012. Scheduled for completion in 2015, the new domestic terminal will accommodate an additional 20 million passengers a year. The project, which will cost less than Bt10 billion, is part of a long-term investment programme that includes construction of a third runway and a midfield terminal said AOT president Serirat Prasutanond.

However, the company will first build the domestic terminal, which will be connected to the present main terminal by a monorail. Serirat said the company also planned to develop commercial areas on its land near the airport, in partnership with the private sector. The private sector will be invited to invest in six projects at the old Don Mueang Airport: a landing-gear maintenance centre, an aircraft-parts stock-management centre, small and medium-sized maintenance centres, an international free-trade zone, a flight-simulator centre and jet and air taxi terminals.

"All the projects will be funded by private firms, and some companies are being approached," said Serirat. AOT also plans to launch a five-year plan for the expansion of Phuket Airport this year, which will involve construction of a new runway and expansion of the terminal and other facilities and services. AOT would also try to assure Suvarnabhumi Airport's status among the world's top 10 airports despite being affected by the forced closure late last year, Serirat said last week at an AOT seminar entitled "The Path to Be a Regional Hub".

Serirat Prasutanond was appointed acting president of the Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) in July 2008, and was named president by the board effective July 1.

In an interview with Boonsong Kositchotethana, Mr Serirat, 58, talks candidly about the plans, challenges and tough issues he will have to address. What do you plan to achieve during your tenure as AoT president, particularly with regards to making Suvarnabhumi Airport Southeast Asia's major air hub? My primary mission is to make AoT as professional an airport operator as possible by providing high standards of service, safety and security for our clients, including airlines and passengers.

At the same time, as a company, I have to assure that our shareholders get a fair return on their investment. At Suvarnabhumi Airport, we have been constantly improving our service quality across the board. We were in the top five among airports with a passenger-handling capacity of more than 40 million a year in the 2008 ranking by the Airports Council International (ACI). Last year, you said AoT would break in to the ACI's annual overall top 10 airport ratings by 2009. You have yet to achieve this goal, why? Our target to be one of the world's top-10 airports remains intact, and we remain confident we can achieve that goal even though we are being hit by negative factors like the global economic recession, Thai political turmoil and now the H1N1 pandemic. We have been climbing on the ACI chart, moving from 40th position in 2007 to 28th place in 2008 and in the first quarter of this year we were at 19th.

As for Skytrax (which provides the world's largest choice of independent airline and airport reviews), we were 37th in 2007 but this year we expect a higher rating. AoT, especially Suvarnabhumi Airport, has continued to be bombarded with widespread criticism from both passengers and airlines, ranging from inefficiency, alleged corruption and high service charges. Most newly opened airports are not perfect. They need time to correct flaws and fine-tuning.

We are not discouraged by criticism and complaints. We actually welcome complaints, which help us identify problems and deal with them. We have been in constant consultation with the airline industry on ways and means to enhance our service quality. And we have already introduced a range of new services at Suvarnabhumi Airport which take care of some of those complaints.

For instance, an immigration facility dedicated for incoming premium-class passengers has become operational in recent months. We are now offering free internet service for passengers at departure gates; each is equipped with internet kiosks. In addition to a total of 126 free-internet kiosks, by mid-September at the latest, we will be able to introduce free Wi-Fi internet for passengers who pass immigration check areas. We are adding more free drinking water dispensers throughout the terminal. We are also creating activities at Suvarnabhumi to promote our arts and culture with a different exhibition and events every month. What about those deceiving "black-plate" taxi drivers and unscrupulous "ghost" tour guides at the airport who prey on foreign passengers and tourists? We have been chasing them for more than two years. We arrested and fined them 500 to 1,000 baht each only to find them back on the scene soon. But we are not sitting idly. The AoT board has appointed a sub-committee, headed by the director-general of Department of Land Transport and Police, to deal with the taxi problems. AoT is not empowered to deal with those cases but relies on law enforcement agencies. What we need is some legal authority to deal with acts like parking in forbidden areas in the terminal or trespassing. AoT actually proposed a draft law for such authority in January and it is still under consideration by the House. Has AoT been doing anything to really reassure the industry and travellers that there will never be a repeat last year's blockades at Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports? The draft law we proposed very much involves day-to-day operations. The airport seizure is a different matter altogether and beyond [the AoT's responsibility]. The airport blockade is an issue that rests with the government. Assurance that the airports will not be raided again can only come from the government.

What we did when the situation at Suvarnabhumi was getting out of hand [in December 2008] was to ask for help from the armed forces, who, unfortunately, did not turn up. The government must say airports cannot be closed and security forces must be there to thwart any attempt to lay siege. We pay a lot of tax to the state, so they should take care of our airports.

How active is AoT in pushing forward the expansion of Suvarnabhumi Airport to cope with growing traffic demand and to sustain Bangkok's strategic position as a key hub? Our priority is to build the third runway and a domestic terminal. The third runway is still pending an environmental impact assessment. Once approval is received, we can immediately get on with the construction of the runway because the design is already there and the land was refilled. We want to build a domestic terminal, separate but linked to the current terminal, to serve both domestic and international travellers. The conceptual design for the domestic terminal is underway. It entails a simple design with the capacity to handle 20 million passengers a year. It will be connected to the main terminal by some sort of people mover system with a minimum travel time from one end to another. The current terminal will be turned entirely over to serving international traffic, thus offering greater convenience for international passengers. The present terminal is capable of serving 45 million passengers a year and this year a total of about 38 million passengers are expected to pass through the facility. About 28-29 million of those passengers will be international. We hope to commence construction of both facilities by the end of next year or early 2011 so they would be up and running in the following four years. Our expectation is that Suvarnabhumi, after the expansion, will be able to serve demand until 2019.

Meanwhile, we are proceeding with a 6.7-billion-baht scheme to boost capacity of Phuket International Airport. Chiang Mai airport's old terminal is also undergoing a facelift as the construction of a new international terminal is completed. And the old Don Mueang airport is being given additional roles, in addition to serving non-connecting domestic flights, including being turned into a venue for an aircraft maintenance centre, flight training and handling private jets. Low-cost carriers have called for AoT to build a terminal in Bangkok dedicated to their operations. Is it on AoT's radar screen? There is no policy regarding the construction of a separate terminal for budget airlines. We don't have such a need. Though we do not have a LCC terminal, traffic is still growing and we can serve them well. We cannot offer lower service charges to LCCs than other operators as suggested. But I agreed with the principle they have been preaching - you pay for what you use. Airlines have been calling for AoT to help reduce their operating costs by cutting airline expenses such as landing fees or space rentals. Are these issues on your agenda? We have already done some of this. On April 23, the AoT board approved a 30% reduction in landing fees and a waiver in parking charges for 24 hours at the six AoT-operated airports, to be applied retroactively from May 1 until Dec 31. This enhances the previous scheme - a 20% discount in landing fees and a 24-hour parking fee waiver from Feb 1 to Sept 30. Is AoT's plan to takeover 26 to 28 provincial airports operated by Department of Civil Aviation still in the pipeline? We don't want to use the term 'takeover'. But if the government felt that we are a professional airport operator, and wanted to hire us to run those facilities, it is fine for us. Do you see a need to restructure AoT to bring the company forward?

No. There won't be any dramatic changes. AoT has already gone through a transformation several years ago, from a wholly state-owned enterprise into a publicly-listed company. My job is to fine-tune the new structure and create a business-minded, customer-first mentality among our employees.