Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) plans to work with the ride-hailing app Grab to solve the shortage of taxi services at both Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports.
AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said that less than half of the taxis registered at these two international airports are currently in service, resulting in long waits for arrivals.
Only 500 of 2,500 registered taxis in Don Mueang airport are available and 2,500 of 5,000 operating at Suvarnabhumi airport are in service, said Mr Nitinai.
"Passengers at Don Mueang airport [were in need of] 700 taxis when only 500 were in service. Some taxis had to drop their passengers off in the city centre and then got stuck in traffic, so they couldn't pick up new passengers at the airport quickly enough to meet demand," he said.
Mr Nitinai said the AoT will include Grab services at the airport taxi desk to ease the long lines after a Facebook page named "Bangkok I Love You" on Thursday posted a picture of the immigration section at Suvarnabhumi Airport showing it was packed with arriving passengers.
Pol Maj Gen Choengron Rimphadee, a spokesman for the Immigration Bureau (IB), Suvarnabhumi airport has seen 57,000 arrivals on its busiest day since the Covid-19 restrictions were lifted. Of those, 49,000 were foreign tourists.
Before Covid-19, the highest number of arrivals was 60,000 per day, added Pol Maj Gen Choengron.
The AoT has proposed applying the Advance Passenger Processing System (APPS) -- a real-time interface between airlines and immigration -- to improve the service at the terminal.
