Airports of Thailand (AOT) is trying to convince airlines flying to Bangkok Don Mueang to use widebody aircraft as the airport is nearing its capacity in terms of aircraft movements, the Bangkok Post has reported.

Sumpun Kutranon, the deputy general manager of AOT, the state-owned operator of the largest airports in Thailand, said that the airport was not able to expand the infrastructure to handle more than 52 aircraft movements per hour. As such, the upgauging of aircraft was the only way forward to increase the number of passengers.

The airport will handle around 40 million passengers in 2019, and AOT has plans to gradually expand land-side infrastructure including a new third terminal and ground transportation infrastructure.

According to the ch-aviation capacities module, out of Don Mueang's 2,444 weekly scheduled departures only 191 are currently operated with widebody aircraft. Of these, Thai AirAsia X operates 89, NokScoot (Bangkok Don Mueang) 50, Thai Lion Air (SL, Bangkok Don Mueang) 37, and Scoot (TR, Singapore Changi) 15.