Phuket Airport Enters Final Upgrade Stage

1st Nov 2016

Phuket International Airport is closing in on the final stage of its upgrade worth 5.14 billion baht. According to airport’s General Manager Monrudee Gettuphan, the upgrade of the old terminal will commence on Tuesday and should be finished in 330 days.

Old Terminal to be Renovated in Two Stages

Phuket Airport GM said the old terminal will be renovated in two stages. During each stage, a section of the airport will be closed temporarily.

During the first stage, levels 1, 2 and 3 of the domestic passenger sector, located in the southern wing of the airport, will be closed for 236 days for architectural work, building systems and structural improvements.

In the second stage, sections 1, 2, and 3 of the international passenger sector in the northern wing will be closed for 150 days.

Commissioning the entire system will take another 20 days.

Once renovated, the terminal will be able to process 7.5 million passengers per year and will handle domestic travellers. At the same time, the new terminal, which was opened on 16^th September, will take over international traffic. It will be able to handle about 5 million passengers a year.

Passport Control Still Understaffed, Creates Long Queues

Mrs Monrudee continued that although they managed to significantly reduce overcrowding at the Airport, long queues are still being created at passport control. The reason for this is the lack of immigration officers, as only 11 to 15 officers are on duty regularly, serving both departures and arrivals, whereas there are a total of 72 service channels – 34 in the departure and 38 in the arrival section.

Recognizing this problem, Airports of Thailand (AoT) recently agreed to offer support to the Immigration Bureau to help deal with it. AoT operates six major Thai airports (Suvarnabhumi, Don Muang, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Hat Yai).

Phuket International Airport is the third busiest in Thailand after Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang. According to data from AoT, between January and September this year, traffic at Phuket increased by 19.3 per cent and was 11.3 million.

While the old terminal is being renovated, all domestic flights will be relocated to the smaller annex building where Jetstar and Tiger flights checked in before.

Also, if you're looking for a parking spot, you should know that the old entrance to the parking structure is now closed, so you will have to go via the new main entrance of the international terminal and then complete a circle to park. 

Entrance for domestic flights is where the old terminal exit used to be.

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• Phuket Airport

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