Express Limousine Shuttle Van Services Launched For Phuket Airport

[george]

Express limousine shuttle van services launched for Phuket airport

PHUKET: -- The Phuket provincial administration Sunday launched a special shuttle van service between the Phuket International Airport and downtown.

Phuket deputy governor Tri Akkaradecha chaired the ceremony to launch the service of Phuket Vehicle Service Cooperative.

Tri said the van service was launched following tourists' complaints that existing bus services were slow and often delayed as bus drivers often stopped on the way to wait for more passengers or to try to sell tourism packages to the tourists.

Manote Chusak, president of the cooperative, said the service started with five vans leaving from the airport to the downtown every hour.

-- The Nation

[thaigerd]

A nice idea but this service will disappear after 1 month.......may be earlier.

These Van drivers will get beaten up and punished from the existing taxi and tuk tuk drivers.

Gerd

[simon43]

Agree with Thaigerd... the taxi mafia will put an end to this idea very quickly.

I see that this new service only goes between the airport and Phuket town, not between the airport and Patong, (which is the route that most tourists really want).

I did a quick analysis of customers who booked to stay at our airport hotel over the past month. Approximately 10-15% never actually arrived at our hotel because these taxi guys took them to another hotel, (the one owned by the taxi company!!).

How can Phuket ever claim to be a 'quality' tourist destination with this sort of thing happending every day?

(BTW, this problem besets other hotels in this area, not just my hotel)

Simon

[NBT TV Phuket]

More minibuses are launched to serve passengers between Phuket Airport and Phuket Town.

The new service offered by the Phuket Limousine Business Service Cooperative are in the form of minibuses and started since August 12th. The route covers Phuket International Airport, via Koh Kaew, to Phuket Town at the Clock Tower near Metropole Hotel, before ending at the fresh market on Ranong Road. The fare is 100 baht. The minibus service begins at 8am and departs every hour with 20 trips daily. The Chairman of the Cooperative Manote Chupak said the group introduced the service to tackle tourist complaints on other services. He stressed that if any of the Cooperative receives any complaints about its members, they would be suspended for three days and if they are complained about three times, their membership would be revoked.

To see or download mini-video, go to http://www.thaisnews.com/news_detail.php?newsid=214499

from Andaman News TV11 (VHF dial) 8.30am + FM90.5 Radio Thailand 6pm, both broadcast from Phuket City to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces & maybe later on Phuket Cable TV Channel 1, Wednesday 15 August 2007 & www.Thaisnews.com

[seonai]

You don't want to mess with the Phuket taxi mafia. We wrote about them negatively in a magazine I worked for and they surrounded our office and demanded blood !

[Mid]

AOT slashes number of airport limousines

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

PHUKET: The Phuket Limousine and Business service Cooperative (PBC) is seeking support from the provincial government after Airports of Thailand Public Co Ltd (AOT) slashed the number of vehicles it is allowed to operate at the airport from 150 to just 90 under a new concession.

At an August 15 meeting with Phuket Vice-Governor Tri Augkaradacha, PBC President Manode Chupak said that the sharp reduction would cause many PBC members to lose their livelihoods.

snip

phuketgazette.net