The fast and furious growth in Thailand's air passenger traffic seen last year has come to an apparent end.
Newly released figures from Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) confirm a slower pace at Suvarnabhumi and five other big airports as overheating demand cools down.
Cumulative volume of passengers boarding, alighting and transiting in the first 11 months of 2016 rose by 11% year-on-year, half the pace of 22.5% achieved in the same period of 2015.
Combined passenger volume in the January-November 2016 period remained overwhelming with 110.42 million, compared with a tally of 99.46 million in the year-earlier period.
Aircraft movements, representing take-offs and landings, showed slower growth in line with passenger volume, rising 8.7% in the 11-month period to 718,525 versus 17.3% growth with 661,135 movements a year earlier.
The plunge in arrivals from China, whose traffic was curbed by the Thai government's clampdown on inbound tourist scams, was blamed for dampening growth in the first 7-8 months of the year.
China is a top source of Thai tourism, accounting for nearly a third of some 32 million foreign visitors projected for the whole of 2016.
International passenger traffic in the first 11 months of 2016 rose 10% to 62.24 million, compared with 21.2% growth a year earlier.
Along the same lines was domestic passenger traffic, which rose 12.3% to 48.2 million, against 24.3% growth in the prior-year period.
Taken as a whole in the first 11 months, four out of six AoT-run airports managed double-digit growth. Hat Yai and flagship Suvarnabhumi were the exceptions.
Suvarnabhumi recorded a 5.7% rise in passenger throughput in the first 11 months of 2016 with 51 million, while Hat Yai's edged up 9.1% to 3.63 million.
Phuket showed the highest growth rate in passenger traffic for January-November with a 17.8% increase to 13.7 million.
Bangkok's Don Mueang trailed with a 16.9% rise to 32 million passengers, followed by Chiang Rai with a 15.9% increase to 1.80 million.