Phuket airport prepares to expand capacity
Daily flights could increase by as much as 50% to accommodate higher tourism demand
Visitors arrive at Phuket International Airport. (File photo: Achadthaya Chuenniran)
Phuket International Airport aims to increase flights from 20 to 25 per hour to accommodate 18 million passengers in 2025, while Airports of Thailand (AoT) is accelerating Phase 2 of the airport’s development to support its growth.
The airport currently serves 60 airlines and handles between 260 and 280 flights daily, according to director Monchai Tanod.
During the high season, from Oct 28 to late April, daily flight numbers are expected to reach 300, with visitors arriving from Europe accounting for much of the increase.
The largest group of international travellers to the southern holiday island is from China, followed by those from Russia and India, said Mr Monchai.
The number of Chinese tourists visiting Phuket this year is about 60% of the total the island saw in the pre-Covid period, compared with 85% for Europeans.
The number of domestic flights is also continuing to grow, with carriers working to increase passenger loads, said Mr Monchai.
However, he does not expect the airport to reach the high season peak of 2019 when it saw 400 domestic and international flights and 60,000 passengers per day.
The airport is also looking to accommodate many chartered flights in the coming weeks, he said, adding that current bookings are about 80% of the airport’s capacity.
The airport will also welcome the first direct flights from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
He believes high demand for chartered flights among tourists from the Middle East will be ongoing, saying that all such flights from Saudi Arabia are fully booked.
In the 2024 fiscal year that ended Sept 30, Phuket Airport handled 98,711 flights — 53,378 international and 45,333 domestic — an increase of 20% from the year before.
The number of passengers increased by 21.2% to 16 million — 6.2 million from within the country and 9.8 million from overseas.
Mr Monchai said that while the airport’s single runway can accommodate up to 18 million passengers annually, the passenger terminals are congested because they were initially designed to accommodate 12.5 million.
AoT is accelerating expansion to accommodate 18 million passengers and ease the pressure on facilities.
The development includes expanding runways and taxiways, improving terminals and increasing flight capacity from 20 to 25 per hour or from 400 to 600 per day.
Mr Monchai said staff overseeing the Phase 2 development project are in the process of doing design work and sourcing contractors.
Construction is expected to start in late 2025, with a budget of 6 billion baht.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2884851/phuket-airport-prepares-to-expand-capacity
