Phuket Airport Still Quiet

Phuket Airport still quiet, nearly two months after tsunami

PHUKET: -- Last year, it was a bustling little international airport on a Thai island paradise, dubbed the 'Pearl of the Andaman'. Now, it is just a shadow of what it once was, with visitor arrivals down by more than 64 percent.

With Thailand's southern Andaman provinces of Phuket, Krabi and Phang-nga all badly damaged by the massive waves which struck across Asia on 26 December, the Phuket Airport was always going to be a victim of sharply reduced tourist numbers.

According to Sqd. Ldr. Pornchai Ua-aree, the airport's director, January saw a 26.74 percent reduction in the number of flights arriving in Phuket, with only 2,151 flights arriving compared to 2,936 in January 2004.

Of these, 777 were international flights and the remainder domestic, with international flights down 54.59 percent on the previous year's figures.

Although the drop in domestic flights was less severe, many of the flight arrivals were accounted for by the arrival of aid for the tsunami victims.

Passenger arrivals, meanwhile, slumped by 64.4 percent in January, with 181, 511 arrivals, compared to 509,841 in January last year.

International arrivals recorded a 88.8 percent drop, from 241,513 passengers to a mere 27,026, while domestic arrivals were down by 42.43 percent.

Sqd. Ldr. Pornchai admitted that some flights to Phuket had still not been resumed, with around 44 percent of regular flights cancelled.

Nonetheless, he noted that some airlines were now beginning to return to the province, including Orient Thai flying from Hong Kong.

But he conceded that with the badly damaged Phang-nga resort of Khao Lak, one of the major destinations previously chosen by a large proportion of passengers using the airport, it would be a long time before passenger numbers were restored to their pre-tsunami levels.

--TNA 2005-02-17