Phuket Airport - International Departure

[Bikkii]

I flew yesterday morning to KL on the 0800 AirAsia flight. Immigration was a nightmare. Queues were right back outside the entry doors.

Took a full hour to get through.

They ended up delaying our departure as there were still several people stuck in immigration. Captain popped out several times to query the ground staff on how many pax they were still waiting on. In the end he called it at 0815, and offloaded 2 passengers.

There were a few things that I noticed while shuffling towards the desks:

- Passengers were reaching the immigration counters either without their departure cards (how do you lose it when it is stapled into your passport?) - or not having them filled out. To their credit, they sent a few back to fill them out, but it still held up the queues

- Quite a few overstays

- Queue jumpers - there were a few large groups on flights to Europe - and I noticed as some came through the doors, they would look for others on their flights and move up to join them.

I'll definitely come earlier next time.

On a positive note - cannot fault AirAsia on their hiring policies. Cabin crew are very easy on the eyes

I have flown AirAsia 4 times in the last 6 months, and like you was astounded by the beauty, err, skills needed to be a hostess. Unfortunately on my last flight to Thailand, the prettiest of them all had the personality of a corpse! Still, 2 or 3 hrs spare together, I'm sure I could put a smile on that gorgeous face!

[merijn]

I noticed today that they changed the international departure checks, now is it first security and then immigration. I don't know how long this is the case but it was confusing for me as I saw a long pileup of people before the departure area which brought my blood to a boil.

Later I found out the new security location is straight behind departure area entrance which caused for the long line into the checking area.

I don't know if this is a good setup for the high season.