The haze covering areas in the North will not affect air traffic at airports in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, says Airports of Thailand (AoT).
President Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said the situation is improving and has not affected the number of flights to these airports operated by AoT.
Nitinai: Songkran air traffic higher
He forecast 246,000 passengers will use Chiang Mai airport during Songkran, from April 11-17, or 35,000 a day, up 19.7% from last year. There will be 1,640 flights during the period, or about 230 flights daily, a 20% increase year-on-year.
For Chiang Rai, AoT estimates 80,000 passengers will use the airport during the holiday, or 11,400 per day, growth of 37%. The company estimates 60 flights a day for the period, up 6.3%.
If air quality in the North does not improve, tourists will likely travel to other regions, shrinking the number of tourists to these two provinces, said Mr Nitinai.
Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are six of the airports operated by AoT, which also include Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket and Hat Yai.
He estimated 3.2 million passengers will use AoT's six international airports during Songkran, with airlines set to operate 18,460 flights.
Total air passengers at AoT's six airports are expected to increase by 12.3% from the same period last year.
Mr Nitinai estimated an average of 458,400 passengers will travel by air during the holiday using these airports, with an average of 2,640 flights per day, of which 230 are chartered flights.
The number of flights is forecast to grow by 6% compared with the same period last year.
Suvarnabhumi airport will be the busiest, handling more than 1.37 million passengers or 196,000 passengers per day, growth of 5.8%. It is expected to handle nearly 7,700 flights, or 1,100 per day, a 7% increase.
Don Mueang airport is projected to serve 970,000 passengers, or 138,000 per day during Songkran, up 18%.
Some 5,800 flights are projected, or 830 flights per day.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand estimates Thais will make about 3.1 million trips during the holiday.