Phuket & Krabi International Airports Increasing International Flights

[Jai Dee]

Phuket & Krabi International Airports increasing international flights

With the high season coming up, the 2 airports in this Andaman region are getting busier which is good news. Our Special report today takes a good look at the air traffic at the two airports in Phuket & Krabi.

Phuket International Airport has prepared itself for the high season with most of the airlines also increasing their flights by including more charter flights. Scheduled airlines such as TG or Thai Airways have 10 flights per day, Air Asia has 4 flights per day, Orient Air has 3-4 flights depending on the schedule, Bangkok Airways has 5-6 flights per day, while there are more international airlines like Tiger Air, Malaysian and Silk Air.

Airlines usually increase their flight services during the busy tourist season, and Silk Air is no exception. It hopes to support more international passengers as the CEO of Silk Air, Mike Barclay, told us, during his visit last week to open a new branch office in Phuket at the new Bypass Square opposite Tesco Lotus: "we fly 4 flights a days 28 flight a week, bringing tourists not only from Singapore but all around the world we have Australians on our flight, Europeans, South Africans from the North Asia, really a world wide group in Singapore and on up to Phuket and it is going well in this winter we going up to 5 times a day 4 days a week."

He told us it is not only leisure holiday makers but also business passengers interested in Phuket and the airline has seen a positive load factor:

"On the route we have very full flight generally we fill about 70-80% of our seats depending on which flight it is each day but it is very strong route for expanding ,we have 2 classes not just only economy, on the business side traffic on the route also strong component."

Silk Air held a small Lion dance celebration by local Thai students to open their new office, and he admitted that bigger cultural events like the Phuket Vegetarian Festival were an exciting incentive for their travelers here:

"I think it depends on how we promote it, it needs to be promoted some more for the new coming year, but it sounds like a great time to visit Phuket and you can rest assured that there will be talking around the region."

Next, we head to Krabi Airport to see what has changed after Krabi upgraded to an international airport. Paisan Jit-na-chan, the director of Krabi International Airport, said it now has two terminals but now they use only the new building for both domestic and international flights.

To carry more passengers from all around the world, the airport is increasing the size of the runway from 2,100 to 3,000 meters which is expected to be done by 2009 to make sure that it can handle bigger airplanes and safer for all airplanes to land.

The airport also has flights from the Ukraine and Scandinavia. While domestic airlines include TG, One Two Go and Thai Air Asia, the international services include Tiger Air from Singapore which flies 4 times a week. This November there will be a charter flight coming from Sweden, as well as an Airbus 200 of Nova Airlines from the Scandinavia and the latest airline that just contacted for using the airport is Fin Air. At the moment they still have more domestic tourists traveling to Krabi than the Europeans, but the signs are encouraging for more international tourists, as their numbers this year are getting higher than the last year because of the change in the airport status and the support from the government.

Source: Andaman News - Thursday 19 October 2006