Phuket Airport Growing

20th Oct 2010

All airline routes, it seems, are leading to Phuket.

In the last couple of months month airlines from the Middle East, Russia, Australia and China have announced either increased flights, or new routes, to Phuket.

So who's coming here? Pacific Blue, the Australian based airline in the Virgin Blue Group, announced that from 19 August, 2010 it would start flying Perth-Phuket three times a week instead of two. It is being fed passengers from Melbourne, which makes the route even more beneficial.

On 17 August, 2010, Jetstar, a subsidiary of Qantas, the Australian national carrier, announced it will increase frequency on its Sydney to Phuket sector to five times weekly, starting mid-December. This will add an additional 1200 passengers a week.

From China, Hainan Airlines, that country's fourth largest carrier based in Southern China, are flying every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday between Beijing and Phuket. Qatar Airways will start new flights to Phuket on 11 October as part of an expansion of its push into Asia.

Russian Airline Pegas Touristika, a tour operator, will increase charter flights in the high season and Rossiya Russian Airlines, based in St. Petersburg, was to start flights in mid August to Moscow to connect with Thai Airways International flights to Phuket.

THAI itself will increase flights between Moscow and Bangkok in the high seasons from three to four a week, another schedule that must benefit Phuket. The Russians are certainly coming, and they will overcome extraordinary odds to get to Phuket. For example the shortest flight via Vienna, Austria to Phuket from Moscow is 29 hours.

Phuket as a destination, it seems, is back in the game big time as far as the airlines are concerned.

The most encouraging thing is that the new or extra flights are coming from emerging tourist markets such as the Middle East and China, as well as the now well established sources like Russia and Australia.

In 2009 the top three markets by country inbound to Phuket were Russia, the United Kingdom and Australia with China eighth. In 2008 Thailand, Sweden and Australia were top with China sixth and Russia eighth. In 2007 Thailand, Australia and UK were tops with China and Russia seventh and eighth respectively [source: Tourism Authority of Thailand based on number of room nights].

Why is this apart from the obvious charms of Phuket as a tourist destination? The middle class, for a start. Russia, the Middle Eastern countries and China all have middle classes that are rapidly growing and looking for somewhere to spend their vacation rubles, Aussie dollars, Chinese renminbi [RMB] or Qatari or Saudi Arabian riyal.

Throw in air fares that, generally, are being kept within manageable reach for these potential tourists through competition between the budget and full service carriers, newer and more efficient aircraft and cost savings instituted by an airline industry battered and forced to take drastic measures to remain solvent in the last decade, and the cost of travel remains eminently affordable.

Phuket still looks pretty good in a Russian winter and with the Middle East being the fastest growing aviation market in the world, there are plenty of people who favour a nice Thai beach over the Arabian desert or the somewhat sterile destinations like Dubai for something completely different.

Then there are the low cost carriers. So many of them are now plying their trade to the prime destinations, whipping the cream off the top of the routes, that the end result is a customer who has both money and unprecedented choice to either go up or down the airline scale: full service or budget.

Throw in the Internet. At the end of this value chain are the destinations like Phuket, which are not only promoted vigorously by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, but through hundreds of websites based on Phuket and around the world. It's easy. For example, for domestic flights in Phuket just punch in something like www.domesticflightsthailand.com and you have all the information you need for connecting flights around the Kingdom. It's the same for international flights offshore.

All this in addition to the regular flights from airlines like Air Berlin, now one of the biggest operators at Phuket International Airport. It also operates numerous services to Phuket, via Bangkok, in a code share with Cologne based low cost carrier Germanwings.

Phuket has around 17 international airlines, full service and budget carriers, actively servicing the island, excluding the charter flights, with obviously more from places like Qatar and Hainan, in China, to be added. The way airlines keep making announcements of new flights to Phuket, it is not going to stop there.

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