Phuket Opinion: 'Bangkok-centric' travel slows Phuket progress

[Lite Beer]

Phuket Opinion: 'Bangkok-centric' travel slows Phuket progress
Phuket Gazette -

Direct flights between major hubs like Phuket and Hat Yai have yet to be successful. Photo: Gazette Graphics

PHUKET: There are many different indices used to assess how developed a country is. Fortunately for Thailand, the state of the domestic aviation industry is not among them, because if it were, the country would not fare well in the ratings.

In many countries, regional carriers operating small turboprop commuter planes on scheduled routes in lean markets are an important segment of the overall air transport infrastructure.

In neighboring Malaysia, as just one example, Firefly continues to expand in leaps and bounds, having recently received the first of 20 new 72-seat ATR turboprop aircraft.

The carrier, which now uses turboprop planes exclusively, operates 15 domestic and 10 international routes, including several to resort destinations in Thailand. Having carried some 1.7 million customers last year, it is establishing both Kota Baru and Johor Baru as new hubs and plans to expand into Vietnam and Cambodia.

In sharp contrast, the dearth of regional commuter flights linking major population centers within Thailand is hard to explain, especially for a country that relies so heavily on tourism to generate revenue, has so many popular destinations with airports – and has such an abysmal road safety record.

The current lack of any direct flights linking the South’s two largest international airports, Phuket and Hat Yai, is just one case in point. Both are international airports serving large metropolitan areas, yet of the numerous carriers that have tried to operate the route, none have done so successfully.

Some, like Nok Air, failed because it chose aircraft too large and ran into load factor problems that probably could have been overcome by a better sales and marketing campaign. Phuket Air failed principally because of its safety record. Happy Air also had marketing problems, as well as reliability issues. The list goes on, but the recurrent theme is mismanagement, not lack of demand.

There are interesting parallels between the interminable political mess we find ourselves in and the sparsity of regional commuter flights in Thailand. First and foremost, everything in Thailand, it seems, must go through Bangkok. Having useful connections with the ruling elite there is also seen as a must for any hopeful start-up.

Airports of Thailand (AoT) is currently undertaking major expansions at several airports, including Phuket International. Sadly, they are so firmly cemented in a thoroughly “Bangkok-centric” style of thinking that little or no planning, it seems, has been done to help spur the growth of aviation services outside the capital. Such planning, should it ever be forthcoming, could go a long way to help keep Phuket hotels filled with tourists year-round.

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2014/Phuket-Opinion-Bangkok-centric-travel-slows-Phuket-progress-25663.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2014-02-23

[canopus1969]

but the recurrent theme is mismanagement

Very few good Managers in Thailand due to lack of education and the fact they will not allow/listen to forigners

[impulse]

Perhaps if a Thai owned airline could avoid Bangkok altogether, they could increase their ratio of paying to parasitic passengers.

It appears they're learning the hub-and-spoke lesson from the US airlines who seem to be going that way more and more. I don't know enough about airline mathematics to know if it's a good idea in a market like Thailand, and I'm hoping to hear from some folks that do know the math.

Still, the other day I bought a walk-up one way ticket 3 hours before my 900 km flight for 2200 baht in BKK on Thai. Same walk-up ticket in the USA would have probably cost 5-10x that.

They had me by the short and curlies and I appreciate that they didn't pull too hard. But it could explain some of their financial straits.

[dominique355]

The best solution would be to have a high speed train between Bangkok and Phuket, but that is not on the government's plan.

It is an ideal train connection with total travel time by a high speed train certainly less than by plane. Also sane from the environmental point of view.

[Ricardo]

Just to add that the direct route between Phuket & Chiang Mai seems to be doing very well these days, thanks to Air Asia Thailand, with Thai Smile finally managing to offer flights both ways (which Thai itself didn't).

Viewed from up North, we now also have direct-links to Hat Yai (twice daily) & the latest is Krabi, also Bangkok Air still mange their direct to (but not back from) Koh Samui.

Things are improving all-the-time !

[hawker9000]

Phuket is the principal reason for Phuket's slow progress... Call me about the airline issue once common sense has sprouted somewhere within their own governance.

[simon43]

Now if AirAsia introduced a direct Phuket-Yangon-Phuket flight, I would be very happy

Simon

[noodle]

The Baht900 taxi fare from the airport to Chalong should give one some idea of what Phuket suffers from.