Thailand’s Airports of Thailand PCL is riding a powerful aviation rebound, with profits soaring as international carriers from Jetstar and AirAsia to Thai Airways, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines ramp up capacity into the kingdom. A combination of resurgent tourism, aggressive route expansion, and targeted incentives at Thailand’s key gateways is underpinning one of Asia’s most closely watched aviation recovery stories, reinforcing the country’s status as a regional hub and rippling benefits across airlines and destinations alike.
AOT Profits Climb Back Toward Pre-Pandemic Highs
For AOT, which operates six major airports including Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang as well as Phuket and Chiang Mai, the latest financials confirm that Thailand’s aviation turnaround is no longer tentative. After posting a net profit of nearly 15 billion baht for the nine months from October 2023 to June 2024, the group has continued to build momentum into fiscal 2024 and 2025 as borders reopened fully, flight schedules were restored, and international demand snapped back faster than many analysts anticipated.
By the fiscal year ending September 2024, AOT’s six airports handled more than 732,000 flights, an increase of around 14.5 percent on the previous year, driven largely by a jump of almost 30 percent in international operations. That surge in traffic pushed profits close to pre-pandemic levels and set the stage for an even stronger fiscal 2025. For the period from October 2024 to June 2025, AOT reported revenue in excess of 52 billion baht and net profit above 14 billion baht, underscoring how rising passenger numbers are now firmly translating into bottom-line gains.
Over the full year from October 2024 to September 2025, passenger throughput climbed to nearly 126 million across AOT’s airports, with international travelers accounting for roughly 77 million and domestic passengers about 49 million. Aeronautical revenue, derived from landing charges, passenger service fees, and related operations, rose by more than 6 percent year on year to over 33 billion baht. While non-aeronautical income such as duty free concessions proved more volatile, the core aviation business is powering ahead.
This profit surge comes despite higher operating costs, including maintenance, staffing, and utility expenses. It reflects the sheer scale of demand returning to Thailand, and the renewed appetite among global carriers to restore or add capacity to one of Asia’s most important tourism and business travel markets.
Passenger Traffic Soars Across Thailand’s Six Key Airports
Behind AOT’s financial performance lies a simple reality: significantly more people are flying to and through Thailand. The company’s six airports recorded more than 88 million passengers in the first eight months of fiscal 2025 alone, a jump of over 9 percent from the same period a year earlier. International travelers lead the way with growth above 10 percent, while domestic traffic has also climbed steadily as Thai consumers return to the skies.
Flight activity tells a similar story. From October 2024 to May 2025, aircraft movements across AOT airports rose by nearly 11 percent, with international flights growing more than 12 percent and domestic flights close to 9 percent. By June 2025, these trends had strengthened further, with more than 602,000 flights handled from October 2024 to June 2025. For airlines, those numbers translate into fuller cabins, more connections, and a strong case for adding new capacity.
Suvarnabhumi remains the primary gateway, handling the bulk of long-haul and regional international services operated by airlines such as Emirates, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways. Don Mueang, meanwhile, has cemented its role as a low-cost carrier hub, enabling airlines like AirAsia and Jetstar to offer dense frequencies on regional and domestic routes at competitive fares. Secondary airports in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Hat Yai are also seeing their international networks rebuilt, catering to both leisure and niche markets.
These volumes are already straining existing capacity at peak times, which is why AOT and the Thai government are accelerating expansion projects. Yet the immediate consequence is clear: with more flights and more passengers across the network, AOT’s aeronautical revenues and associated airline activity continue to rise in tandem.
Low-Cost Powerhouses Jetstar and AirAsia Lead the Volume Charge
Low-cost carriers have been central to Thailand’s aviation resurgence, and they are among the biggest beneficiaries of AOT’s profit-fueled growth. AirAsia, through its Thai units based at Don Mueang, has rebuilt an extensive domestic and regional network that connects Bangkok to secondary cities across Thailand and popular leisure destinations in countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and China. Promotional fares, high frequencies, and the carrier’s strong brand recognition among regional travelers are helping to fill seats even as capacity grows.
Jetstar, operating primarily from Australia and parts of Asia, has taken advantage of Thailand’s tourism rebound by ramping up flights into key resort destinations, particularly Phuket. For Australian and New Zealand travelers, Thailand remains one of the most attractive value-for-money holiday options, and budget carriers like Jetstar are instrumental in keeping the market price competitive while maintaining high load factors.
The role of AOT here is not simply to provide runway space and terminal gates. Incentive schemes, including discounted aeronautical fees for new routes and marketing support for services into regional airports, have tipped the scales in favor of airlines willing to open or restore routes. For cost-sensitive carriers like AirAsia and Jetstar, such incentives can be decisive in route planning, especially when fuel costs and currency swings add uncertainty to profit margins.
As these low-cost operators grow their presence, they drive not only AOT’s traffic figures but also broader tourism flows. Budget-conscious travelers often stay longer and explore more diverse regions, which helps spread economic benefits beyond Bangkok to secondary cities and beach destinations, reinforcing the strategic value of AOT’s regional airports.
Full-Service Giants Thai Airways, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines Deepen Their Footprint
While low-cost carriers bring volume, full-service airlines are equally crucial to Thailand’s aviation equation. Thai Airways, the national flag carrier, has been rebuilding its long-haul and regional network, leveraging its hub at Suvarnabhumi to reconnect Bangkok with major markets in Europe, North Asia, and the Middle East. The airline’s recovery feeds directly into AOT’s fortunes, as improved connectivity encourages both inbound tourism and outbound Thai travel.
Emirates and Singapore Airlines, two of the world’s most influential hub carriers, are also intensifying their presence in Thailand. Emirates has long used Bangkok and Phuket as key destinations in its global network, offering one-stop connections via Dubai to Europe, Africa, and the Americas. As demand has returned, the carrier has restored multiple daily frequencies and widebody operations, bolstering premium and transfer traffic through Suvarnabhumi and reinforcing AOT’s role in intercontinental travel flows.
Singapore Airlines, together with its low-cost subsidiary Scoot, is tightening the aviation bond between Bangkok, Phuket, and Singapore. Frequent services allow travelers to route through Changi Airport to destinations across Asia, Oceania, and beyond. The combination of high service standards and strong onward connectivity makes Thailand an attractive stop or destination in multi-country itineraries, which in turn supports AOT’s passenger and revenue growth.
These full-service carriers are also critical for high-yield segments such as business travel, medical tourism, and premium leisure. Their presence boosts spending in airport lounges, duty free, and hospitality offerings. Even as AOT grapples with fluctuating non-aeronautical revenue from retail and concessions, the quality and volume of premium travelers arriving on airlines like Thai Airways, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines strengthen the long-term business case for high-end infrastructure and services at Thai airports.
Government Policy, Incentives, and Strategic Master Plans
The surge in flights and profits is not solely the product of airline decisions. Thai policymakers and AOT management have worked in tandem to position the country as one of Asia’s most open and attractive destinations in the post-pandemic era. Relaxed entry rules, streamlined visa policies for key markets, and ambitious tourism targets have all contributed to a steady flow of visitors, which airlines are rushing to accommodate.
AOT has introduced an Incentive Programme that offers significant discounts on aeronautical fees to airlines launching new routes into its airports. In some cases, carriers receive a 50 percent reduction in landing and related charges, making it far more feasible to test new city pairs or grow capacity on marginal routes. A dedicated marketing fund, which provides financial support per international passenger on newly established services into regional airports like Hat Yai and Chiang Rai, further encourages airlines to look beyond Bangkok and Phuket.
Alongside these incentives, a long-term master plan for Suvarnabhumi’s development from 2025 through 2035 is taking shape, including terminal expansions that will increase annual capacity by millions of passengers. The planned extension of the East Terminal, targeted for completion later this decade, is expected to add substantial throughput and reduce bottlenecks at the country’s main gateway. These projects form part of a wider strategy to boost AOT’s total system capacity to around 240 million passengers a year by 2032, ensuring that infrastructure keeps pace with demand from carriers such as Jetstar, AirAsia, Thai Airways, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines.
For airlines, these policy and infrastructure commitments send a clear signal that Thailand is betting heavily on aviation and tourism as pillars of its economy. This visibility encourages carriers to commit aircraft and marketing resources on a multi-year basis, amplifying the impact of each new route or frequency increase on AOT’s financial performance.
Challenges Behind the Headlines: Costs, Concessions, and Competition
Despite the upbeat numbers, AOT’s profit story is not without complications. While aeronautical revenue has risen smartly, non-aeronautical income such as duty free sales, retail rentals, and commercial concessions has faced pressure. In the year to September 2025, non-aeronautical revenue recorded a noticeable decline, partly because of adjustments and negotiations with concessionaires still recovering from the pandemic slump and shifted consumer spending patterns.
At the same time, operating costs have climbed. Higher expenditure on maintenance, utilities, technology, and personnel has eroded some of the gains generated by rising passenger numbers. The company has also introduced measures to ease the financial burden on its partners, such as extending payment periods for concession fees and landing charges for airlines facing liquidity challenges. These support schemes are vital for sustaining the broader ecosystem of carriers and retailers, but they also temper short-term profitability.
Competitive pressures across the region add another layer of complexity. Neighboring hubs like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Ho Chi Minh City are all working hard to attract airlines and travelers with their own incentive packages and infrastructure projects. For global carriers including Emirates and Singapore Airlines, route decisions are constantly recalibrated based on yields, slot availability, and hub performance, meaning AOT must continuously prove its value proposition.
Nonetheless, the current trajectory shows that AOT’s robust aeronautical revenues and growing passenger base provide a strong cushion against these headwinds. As airlines reconfigure networks for a post-pandemic world, Thailand’s scale, tourism appeal, and strategic incentives give it a powerful edge that continues to pay off in rising profits and global connectivity.
What the Surge Means for Travelers and Thailand’s Tourism Future
For travelers, the booming activity at AOT airports and the expansion by carriers such as Jetstar, AirAsia, Thai Airways, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines translate directly into greater choice. More routes and frequencies mean better connections, shorter layovers, and increased competition on fares. Leisure visitors from Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and across Asia are benefiting from a wide spectrum of options, from ultra-low-cost seats to premium cabins and one-stop global itineraries.
The network growth is also reshaping travel within Thailand. With low-cost carriers operating dense schedules to domestic and regional destinations, it has become easier to combine multiple cities and islands in a single trip. Tourists can fly into Bangkok on a full-service airline, connect to Phuket or Chiang Mai on a budget carrier, and then continue on to neighboring countries, all while passing through AOT’s airports. This multi-stop flexibility encourages longer stays and higher overall spending.
Looking ahead, Thailand’s tourism authorities see AOT’s performance as a platform for further ambition. Targets for international arrivals have been repeatedly revised upward as capacity returns and demand solidifies. The country is courting higher-spending segments including luxury travelers, wellness tourists, and digital nomads, while maintaining its appeal as a value destination for regional holidaymakers. Airlines that embed Thailand more deeply into their networks stand to capture a share of that growth, while AOT will continue to reap the rewards in passenger service charges and associated activity.
For TheTraveler.org readers, the message is clear. Thailand is entering a new phase of aviation-driven expansion, where the interests of airports, airlines, and travelers are unusually aligned. As AOT profits climb and carriers from Jetstar and AirAsia to Thai Airways, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines step up their presence, the result is a more connected, competitive, and exciting landscape for anyone planning a journey to, from, or through the Land of Smiles.