The race to expand airports is on between Thailand, Vietnam, and their countries.

Southeast Asian countries are trying to expand their main airports to meet rising demand at home and to bring in tourists and foreign investors to help their economies grow. However, some of the plans are causing worries about too much investment.

Nikkei looked into plans to expand airports near the capital cities of seven Asian countries: Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Cambodia. The study found that by 2030, these airports will be able to handle at least 653 million passengers annually, almost double the 336 million people that they could handle in January 2023.

There is a satellite airport at Suvarnabhumi Airport near Bangkok, Thailand. It opened in September. "This is the best time to get the domestic economy going again," Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said at the event. He said that he hoped the growth would help Thailand's tourist business, which had been hurt by the pandemic, get back on its feet.

Up to 28 planes can land at the airport, and 15 million people pass through it every year. When it's fully operating, the airport will be able to handle 30% more people each year, or 60 million tourists. This will make the area less crowded.

A third runway is also planned to be finished at the airport in 2024. It also wants to build a second satellite airport and an extra runway by 2030, which will bring the total number of passengers it can handle each year to 150 million.

Don Mueang International Airport, which is close to Bangkok, and U-Tapao Airport, which is southeast of the city, are also going to be expanded by the Thai government. By 2030, the three airports in the urban area will be able to handle a total of 200 million people.

People in Thailand and other countries are rushing to build airports because the middle class is growing and there is more demand. The Japan Aircraft Development Corporation says that the number of people who want to fly in Southeast Asia will almost triple in the 20 years starting in 2019. The average yearly growth rate in the area is 4.6%, which is higher than the world average of 3.4%.