Phuket Airport tackles congestion

Check-in outside the airport will be available for departures from Phuket International Airport by the end of this year. To alleviate congestion at the airport which is now operating beyond capacity, Phuket International Aiprort will use a private enterprise to establish a check-in facility near Nai Yang beach, about 2 km from the airport. This year, Airports of Thailand projects passenger traffic will reach 9.1 million, up 20% from 8.5 million in 2011. From January to August, the airport handled around 6,332,000 passenger movements, while its capacity ceiling is around 6.5 million per annum. Airports count the number of passenger movements (inbound, outbound and transit) rather than people. In the case of Phuket a visitor will represent two movements on a roundtrip from Bangkok. There is little or no transit traffic at Phuket. A Bt 5 billion airport expansion will increase the airport’s capacity to 12.5 million passenger movements per year, but it will not be ready until 2015. According to the contract, the construction will take 31 months. AoT will hand over the work areas to Sino-Thai Engineerings and Construction 15 October. Phuket International Airport director, Prathuang Sornkham, told TTR Weekly that the private sector should be responsible for investment and management of the off-site check-in terminal. The building needs to be refurbished and that should take another two months. The off-site check-in centre will have a food court, rest area with transfer services to the airport. “At the moment, we cannot tell how many counters will be available. It depends on how many airlines want to use the facility. We are now contacting airlines to see if they are interested,” said Mr Prathuang. “It will ease congestion at the airport and passengers will feel more relaxed. They can even go to Nai Yang beach, while waiting for their flights,” he added. According to Thai language newspaper, Manager, the check-in facility will be part of the Phuket That project. The owner allocated an area of 1,000 sqm for the facility at a cost of around Bt20 million. Phuket That project includes a shopping plaza and resort. The management of the project could not be reached for further details at press time, despite repeated telephone calls. Passengers could find the off-site check-in facility convenient ,but if it costs more to get there by taxi or they have to pay a second time for the transfer to the airport after check-in it will be a source of complaint. Also it is not clear whether the airlines will support the venture and  at what  cost  as they will have to maintain two check-in areas one at the airport and the facility. If they opt for the off-site location on an exclusive basis, it may be considered a negative in terms of customer service and convenience if there was no counters at the airport. It looks like a double cost for airlines and a little more breathing space for AoT to play catch-up on capacity. An off-site facility might be more practical for charter flights or airline services that serve mostly group tours so the transfer to the check-in centre can be managed efficiently.