Bangkok's former international airport, known as Don Muang Airport, will be reopened in two or three weeks, while the new Suvarnabhumi airport will remain open as repairs are carried out, Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said Friday.

"Don Muang airport is being renovated," Surayud was quoted by Bangkok Post's website as saying. "It should be ready for domestic and international flights no later than the next two to three weeks."

He added that airlines could decide for themselves whether they wanted to move back to the old airport, which had been in service for some 90 years as the country's aviation hub before it was dismissioned to give place to the new Suvarnabhumi airport, which officially openned in last September.

According to the report, Surayud also confirmed that Suvarnabhumi airport would not be closed for repairs to its taxi ways and runway. However, domestic flights would have to move to Don Muang in the initial stage to free some taxiways and runways at the new airport for fixing.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Thira Haocharoen confirmed that Don Muang airport would be primarily used for non-connecting domestic flights only while repairs to the taxiways and the runway of the new Suvarnabhumi airport are carried out, since most of the international airlines did not want to move back there.

He expected that there would be about 70 flights a day, or about 17 percent of all the flights, that would go back to the old airport.

Source: Xinhua