After many years of waiting the approval of a new international terminal, construction started at the end of August at Phuket International Airport. However, it will give little relief to the airport’s increasing congestion…
BANGKOK- Like for any other large infrastructure project in Thailand, there is a long time between a project’s announcement and its concretisation. Phuket International Airport is no exception. The necessity to enlarge the Kingdom’s second busiest airport was recognized by the State authority Airports of Thailand (AOT) already in 2005. Plans for a new terminal were published in 2009/2010 but it took over two more years to finalize the construction contract.
At the end of August, AOT board finally agreed to award the US$ 180 million (THB 5.7 billion) contract to the Sino-Thai Engineering & Construction company. The lucky winner got the contract against four other bidders for construction of a new passenger terminal capable of handling 6 million passengers a year, 10 more aircraft parking positions on the apron (now 15), the extension of the taxiway and a five-storey car park able to accommodate up to 1,000 cars. As decisions have been plagued with delays, the construction time frame has been subsequently reduced from 36 to 31 months with the date for opening the new facility fixed for February 2015. At the centre of the work, a new international terminal which will only bring temporary relieve to the congestion faced by the current facilities. The current terminal will then be entirely dedicated to domestic traffic and will also be renovated.
When completed in three years, the airport will be able to process 12.5 million passengers a year compared to 8.4 million last year and over 9 million this year. However, the future facilities when completed might already be fully saturated within a year time after its opening. According to growth estimation, passengers’ traffic could increase over the next three years by at least another 25% to 30% until 2015, the equivalent of 12 to 12.3 million passengers… And as Phuket physical capacities have been fully exhausted, it will then turn difficult for the airport to accommodate more traffic. Except by opening a brand new airport somewhere else around Phuket- a task which would at least need another 15 years at best- or move traffic somewhere else. Krabi could in-between turned into a second gateway to the area as the resort area is a mere 100 km away from Phuket.
Phuket continues to attract more foreign travellers, especially with a boom in tourist arrivals from China, India and Russia. According to the Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand in Phuket, the destination expects to welcome over seven million tourists this year. During the first six months of 2012, arrivals increased by 30% with Chinese and Russian travellers up by over 100% against the same period of 2011.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
