Record Flights Spark New 2bn Baht Phuket Airport

[alanmorison]

A NEW two billion baht terminal is to be built at Phuket International Airport as a record number of arrivals and departures speeds its own journey towards maximum capacity.

The race is now on to stay ahead of the island's growing popularity.

Under a seven-year plan, the new terminal will eventually accommodate 15 million passengers a year. Phuket will not be able to handle more.

But first, the airport is to gain a temporary carpark at a cost of about 10 million baht to cope with the pressures of an astonishing number of travellers.

A total of 38,368 domestic and international flights landed and took off from the airport in 2007, a 32.34 percent increase on the previous year.

The general manager of the airport, Wicha Nurnlop, and his senior management team revealed to Phuketwan on April 24 that planning is in place to deal with the unpredicted rate of growth in Phuket's popularity.

It's little wonder that the existing 420-space carpark is overflowing.

The number of tourists travelling to the island has far exceeded expectations, and at times, flights arrive in a rush.

At one critical stage, the airport handled 11 in-bound flights in an hour. That kind of pressure helped to hasten the decision to expand the airport as fast as possible.

First item on the airport management team's strategic agenda is enlargement of the carpark, where at present visitors are forced to double up in single-vehicle spaces or even park in the street.

''The capacity for both buses and cars is being exceeded,'' Khun Wicha said. ''We are going to create a temporary car park behind the administration block.''

Talks are taking place with concessionaires. Work is expected to begin on the carpark ''in the next few months.''

About 5.5 million passengers arrived last year, with the expanded existing airport now able to handle a maximum of 6.5 million.

Although the controlling Airports of Thailand organisation has a new board, the go-ahead has already been given for major works that will bring big changes at the airport.

''We are going to build a new terminal,'' Khun Wicha said. ''It will take about two years. We have to first present the project to the local authorities to conform with their needs.''

Given the extraordinary growth in the incoming-outgoing figures, can Phuket cope while the new terminal is being built?

''That's a good question,'' Khun Wicha said. ''That's quite a challenge for us. The passenger traffic has grown faster than we have estimated.

''We have development that was anticipated over five years now taking place within three years.

''On day to day operations, we will have to confront many problems, including a shortage of areas for the passengers.

''We already have finished the previous extension process that relieved the problem of passenger check-in.''

Why has there been such an increase in flights?

''Phuket is still relatively cheap as a destination, although some local property prices are expensive.In tropical areas around the world, you cannot find a better destination.

''Many countries have beaches. But if you want to have everything, beautiful beaches, warm water, coral both deep and shallow, Phuket has all these things.''

What about the pressure from the growing size aircraft?

''Today the airport can accommodate most of the biggest aircraft in the world, including the Boeing 747 and the Airbus 340. We cannot accommodate the A380. If they land here, the island will sink.'' (Laughter all round). ''Not many countries can accommodate that aircraft. It's very big.''

And the growing number of flights? Can Phuket cope?

''We think about that question every day. Now we have 120 flight on average every 24 hours. The problem is not the number of flights but the aircraft parking zones.

''We have 23 parking lots and seven of those can accommodate 747s at the same time.

''Because of these limitations, we are going to expand with a new terminal and increase the number of spaces for aircraft.

''It will be a carefully designed new terminal because we have limited space at the airport. We can buy no more land. They have to build within the limitation of existing space.

''Under our seven year project we want to be able to accommodate 15 million passengers. After we build the new terminal, we are going to eliminate the old one.''

from phuketwan.com

[NBT TV Phuket]

quote: "A total of 38,368 domestic and international flights landed and took off from the airport in 2007, a 32.34 percent increase on the previous year. "

According to AOT's official stats for Phuket airport in 2007 there were 40,799 flights up 32.09%. (small difference)

quote: "About 5.5 million passengers arrived last year,.."

According to AOT's official stats there were 2,845,944 arrivals (big difference), 2,841,154 departing, so sub-total 5,687,098 plus 17,267 in transit; so total 5,704,365.

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Statistics are revealed for Phuket & Krabi airports in March 2008.

The Airports of Thailand company who manage Phuket international Airport have revealed to Andaman News their statistics for March 2008 showing 4,041 aircraft movements or flights in and out, a 10.38% increase on March 2007. The total number of passengers, both domestic and international, in and out, was 638,119 an increase of 20.76% and only 2% less the record-breaking month of February 2008 when there were 652,468 passengers. The amount of freight was 1,839 tonnes which was actually down 3.67% compared to last year’s month. Meanwhile the Department of Civil Aviation who manage Krabi International Airport, reported that there were 776 flights in and out, a 8.49% decrease on last March, but the number of passengers was 106,331 actually up 23.01% due to bigger aircraft than last year. The freight was 142,037 kilograms, up an impressive 40.07%.

Andaman News NBT (VHF dial) at 8.30am & local Cable TV channel 1 + maybe FM90.5 Radio Thailand 6pm, broadcast to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces, & possibly FM108 Mazz Radio 7.30pm in Phuket, Wednesday 30 April 2008 & http://news.prd.go.th or http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish

[alanmorison]

quote: "A total of 38,368 domestic and international flights landed and took off from the airport in 2007, a 32.34 percent increase on the previous year. "

According to AOT's official stats for Phuket airport in 2007 there were 40,799 flights up 32.09%. (small difference)

quote: "About 5.5 million passengers arrived last year,.."

According to AOT's official stats there were 2,845,944 arrivals (big difference), 2,841,154 departing, so sub-total 5,687,098 plus 17,267 in transit; so total 5,704,365.

------

Statistics are revealed for Phuket & Krabi airports in March 2008.

The Airports of Thailand company who manage Phuket international Airport have revealed to Andaman News their statistics for March 2008 showing 4,041 aircraft movements or flights in and out, a 10.38% increase on March 2007. The total number of passengers, both domestic and international, in and out, was 638,119 an increase of 20.76% and only 2% less the record-breaking month of February 2008 when there were 652,468 passengers. The amount of freight was 1,839 tonnes which was actually down 3.67% compared to last year's month. Meanwhile the Department of Civil Aviation who manage Krabi International Airport, reported that there were 776 flights in and out, a 8.49% decrease on last March, but the number of passengers was 106,331 actually up 23.01% due to bigger aircraft than last year. The freight was 142,037 kilograms, up an impressive 40.07%.

Andaman News NBT (VHF dial) at 8.30am & local Cable TV channel 1 + maybe FM90.5 Radio Thailand 6pm, broadcast to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces, & possibly FM108 Mazz Radio 7.30pm in Phuket, Wednesday 30 April 2008 & http://news.prd.go.th or http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish

The figures Phuketwan was given were supplied by the AOT, too. As an anonymous media entity, you have now succeeded in promoting your own media outlet. Isn't it now time for you to head off and cover an elite modelling competition somewhere?

[NBT TV Phuket]

MiniVDO: Airport of Thailand, Public Company Limited prepares to enhance Phuket International Airport’s accommodation capacity to take up to 11.5 million passengers per year.

Under its 3 years development plan, the Airport of Thailand, Public Company Limited prepares to spend 5 billion baht to enhance the carrying capacity of Phuket International Airport to be able to cater for 11.5 million passengers compared to the present capacity of 6.5 million. The long term plan will be in action during the 2009–2011 fiscal years. The Deputy Minister of Transport and Communication Songsak Thongsri made the statement during his visit to the airport on Friday. He said after the improvements, he expects the airport to handle 11.5 million passengers per year until 2016. Under the plan the development would include a bigger apron, more bays, building a new terminal for international flights and improving the existing terminal & car park for domestic service. The Deputy Minister also stated that the company has a plan to propose to the Ministry to transfer Krabi airport to be a ‘reliever’ or substitute airport for Phuket as the latter is limited for expansion due to its location and the two provinces are linked in tourism already.

from Andaman News NBT (VHF dial) at 8.30am & local Cable TV channel 1 + maybe FM90.5 Radio Thailand 6pm, broadcast to Phang Nga, Krabi & Phuket provinces, & possibly FM108 Mazz Radio 7.30pm in Phuket, Monday 26 May 2008 & http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/prev...php?news_id=104

Contact [email protected]

We double checked our figures from AOT. We are not "anonymous". We just provide our news for more information/comparison. We cover all kinds of events, in respectable manner, and welcome constructive comments.

Edited May 26, 2008 by TV Channel 11