Phuket Airport Ready for Soft Opening on Valentines Day

17th Dec 2015

Phuket Airport Director Monrudee Gettuphan announced today to the media that the trial or 'soft' opening of the new international terminal at the airport is aimed for 14th February next year, in other words ' Valentine's Day.

The grand opening, on the other hand, is aimed for May, when the visitors will be able to see all the work that was done on the terminal in these last couple of months.

At this point, the terminal is about 80 or more complete, Ms. Monrudee said. When finished, it will have 10 aircraft parking bays and four gangways, which will allow passengers to disembark and embark their planes much faster.

Phuket Airport director said this about the airport expansion:

'The new international terminal will be able to handle 12.5 million passengers annually, which is almost double the existing one, which can take only 6.5 million passengers per year. But we are not only rushing the project to be done according to the plan, but also ensuring that the airport meets the standards by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand.'

She also added:

'And of course, the facilities at the new terminal will include brand-new duty-free shops, a shipping area and restaurants.'

The new international terminal is a big part of Phuket Airport's big, 5.7 billion baht-worth overhaul, which started over two years ago due to its eventual overcrowding. The airport will be over its normal capacity soon, experts agree, which necessitated the entire expansion projects at the airport.

By the time the expansion is over, the airport will have a capacity of 12.5 incoming and outgoing visitors per annum. However, by that time, the number of passengers will already have reached that number. A solution proposed last year in August by the AoT to the National Council for Peace and Order was to raise the passenger handling capacity to 18 million.

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