Airports of Thailand
Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) () is a Thai public company. It manages Thailand's six international airports and will add four more airports in 2019. In 2018, it became the most-valuable airport operator in the world. Thailand's 28 regional airports are managed by the Department of Airports, a separate agency. AOT was established on 20 September 2002, as a result of the privatisation of the state-owned Airports Authority of Thailand (AAT). At that time, the company was worth 14,285,700,000 baht. The Thai government held, and still holds, 70 percent of the company 's stock. During fiscal year 2014 AOT's average daily market capitalization was 282,321 million baht. AOT's fiscal year (FY) runs from 1 October–30 September, thus AOT's FY2018 was from 1 October 2017 – 30 September 2018. AOT airports. AOT operates the following airports in Thailand: The statistics are shown for calendar years. AOT had planned to assume management of Udon Thani, Sakon Nakhon Airport, Tak, and Chumphon Airport from the Department of Airports in 2019. In August 2019, it announced that its plans had been amended; it would assume control of Udon Thani International Airport, Tak Airport, Buriram  Airport, and Krabi International Airport, leaving Sakon Nakhon and Chumphon to the DOA. DOA is resisting the change as Udon Thani and Krabi are its money-making airports; Sakon Nakhon and Chumphon are not. Statistics. Thailand's six AOT airports saw growth in passenger traffic of 21.3 percent in 2015, setting a new record of just under 110 million passengers. Aircraft movements—take-offs and landings—grew in tandem by 16.6 percent from the previous year to 727,750. The growth is expected to continue through 2016 with AOT projecting an 11 percent increase in combined passenger throughput. Air freight moved  through the airports remained largely stagnant in 2015, with a marginal 0.63 percent increase to 1.38 million tonnes, reflecting sluggish global trade. Plans. AOT is budgeting 220 billion baht in 2018 for the creation of two new airports and the expansion of four existing airports owned by the Department of Airports. AOT intends to build Chiang Mai 2 in Lamphun Province and Phuket Airport 2 in Phang Nga Province. The four regional, DOA-managed airports that AOT wants to control are the Buriram, Tak, Krabi, and Udon Thani airports.