Bangkok's century-old Don Mueang airport will have a 20-room capsule hotel and Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT) is calling bids to find the operator.
AOT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said the hotel would be opened on the fourth floor of Terminal 2 and that there would also be shops, restaurants and commercial banks on the same floor.
- VIDEO: Terminal 2 to decongest Don Mueang airport
A woman sits inside a sleeping pod in a capsule hotel in the Akihabara shopping district in Tokyo, where such no-frills accommodation is popular. (Reuters Photo)
The 20-unit capsule hotel would accommodate travellers who want to stay overnight to wait for early-morning flights, he said. He expected the hotel to receive a warm welcome.
First developed in Japan, capsule hotels offer small cheap accommodation in small sleeping cubicles for people who don't require the services of a conventional hotel.
The hotel would occupy four or five slots of commercial space on the fourth floor of Terminal 2. AOT has allocated about 10,000 square metres of space or 400 slots in all for commercial purposes. It has selected tenants for 95% of the space so far. Shops and restaurants run by about 100 operators would occupy about half of the area, Mr Nitinai said.
Terminal 2 reopened on Thursday after renovations. It serves passengers on domestic flights which account for about 70% of all passengers at Don Mueang airport. The reopening of the renovated terminal was aimed at relieving the congestion at Terminal 1 which now serves international flights.
Passenger traffic at Don Mueang in the 12 months to Sept 30 surged 48% to 28.58 million. The airport is now the busiest low-cost carrier airport in Southeast Asia.
AOT expects its yearly revenue to increase from 46 billion baht in fiscal 2015 to 54 billion in fiscal 2016, Mr Nitinai said.