PHUKET: Passenger numbers through Phuket International Airport eased off from their ascending trajectory a little in February, with the overseas element no longer growing phenomenally.
The total number of arrivals and departures nudged 2.83 percent higher when compared with the same month last year to 867,748, with domestic traffic marginally outperforming international traffic.
Flight numbers actually slipped by 0.89 percent to a total of 4965 takeoffs and landings, perhaps a practical reflection of the failure of novice carrier Air Australia when it could not meet its Phuket fuel bill.
Having topped a record one million passengers for the first time in January, when total passenger numbers were up 17.01 percent on the previous year, Phuket International has throttled back and leveled out.
What's significant is the cessation of the constant and dramatic increase in international visitors to Phuket. In February 2011, international traffic rose by 25.10 percent.
Then followed a series of extraordinary rises. Month by month, the climb continued:
March, 27.23 percent; April 24.60 percent; May 36.58 percent; June 47.30 percent; July 48.73 percent; August 43.17 percent; September 29.14 percent; October 29.74 percent; November 30.82 percent; December 16.41 percent; January 26.13 percent.
And now . . .February 0.96 percent.
The overall trajectory, though, is still fixedly upwards, with October 2011 to February 2012 passenger totals up 11.86 percent on the previous comparable period.
Is the feast of Phuket's past year about to be followed by a famine? It's not likely.
Although concerns remain high about the viability of some operators in the airline business, Phuket's drawing power appears to be still strong.
It may be that, as some observers anticipated, the low season has arrived a little early this year because Chinese New Year, which usually boosts February figures, fell in January.
Reports that Phuket International Airport will reach ''breaking point'' in 2012 were immediately rejected by Phuket General Manager Wing Commander Prathuang Somkhom.
As he and other officials control the number of flights to and from Phuket, it would be odd if they allowed traffic to reach ''breaking point,'' whatever that means.
But serious questions have regularly been raised by Phuketwan for months now about how Airports of Thailand will manage the enlargement of the airport between 2012 and mid-2015, when the new international terminal is scheduled to open.
If the old Phuket airport, built to carry 6.5 million, can be stretched to handle 8.4 million, as it did in 2011, more tricks may be possible. But even with February's lull, the likelihood is that 2012 will be the toughest test yet for airport administrators and hard-working staff.
Questions also remain about what happens beyond 2015, if as we've been told there is no room to expand further beyond the extended airport and its theoretical maximum of 12.5 million arrivals and departures.
We hope to glean some of the answers about Phuket's long-term strategy for tourism in the air this week.
The full board of Airports of Thailand and the Transport Minister meet at Phuket International on Friday as a prelude to this month's visit by PM Yingluck and her Cabinet.
The total number of arrivals and departures nudged 2.83 percent higher when compared with the same month last year to 867,748, with domestic traffic marginally outperforming international traffic.
Flight numbers actually slipped by 0.89 percent to a total of 4965 takeoffs and landings, perhaps a practical reflection of the failure of novice carrier Air Australia when it could not meet its Phuket fuel bill.
Having topped a record one million passengers for the first time in January, when total passenger numbers were up 17.01 percent on the previous year, Phuket International has throttled back and leveled out.
What's significant is the cessation of the constant and dramatic increase in international visitors to Phuket. In February 2011, international traffic rose by 25.10 percent.
Then followed a series of extraordinary rises. Month by month, the climb continued:
March, 27.23 percent; April 24.60 percent; May 36.58 percent; June 47.30 percent; July 48.73 percent; August 43.17 percent; September 29.14 percent; October 29.74 percent; November 30.82 percent; December 16.41 percent; January 26.13 percent.
And now . . .February 0.96 percent.
The overall trajectory, though, is still fixedly upwards, with October 2011 to February 2012 passenger totals up 11.86 percent on the previous comparable period.
Is the feast of Phuket's past year about to be followed by a famine? It's not likely.
Although concerns remain high about the viability of some operators in the airline business, Phuket's drawing power appears to be still strong.
It may be that, as some observers anticipated, the low season has arrived a little early this year because Chinese New Year, which usually boosts February figures, fell in January.
Reports that Phuket International Airport will reach ''breaking point'' in 2012 were immediately rejected by Phuket General Manager Wing Commander Prathuang Somkhom.
As he and other officials control the number of flights to and from Phuket, it would be odd if they allowed traffic to reach ''breaking point,'' whatever that means.
But serious questions have regularly been raised by Phuketwan for months now about how Airports of Thailand will manage the enlargement of the airport between 2012 and mid-2015, when the new international terminal is scheduled to open.
If the old Phuket airport, built to carry 6.5 million, can be stretched to handle 8.4 million, as it did in 2011, more tricks may be possible. But even with February's lull, the likelihood is that 2012 will be the toughest test yet for airport administrators and hard-working staff.
Questions also remain about what happens beyond 2015, if as we've been told there is no room to expand further beyond the extended airport and its theoretical maximum of 12.5 million arrivals and departures.
We hope to glean some of the answers about Phuket's long-term strategy for tourism in the air this week.
The full board of Airports of Thailand and the Transport Minister meet at Phuket International on Friday as a prelude to this month's visit by PM Yingluck and her Cabinet.
I have a question with your statement here
"The total number of arrivals and departures nudged 2.83 percent higher when compared with the same month last year to 867,748, with domestic traffic marginally outperforming international traffic."
Why are they counting incoming and outgoing and also international and domestic?
Surely you only count one way for travel TO Phuket.
Also Phuket is not visited so much by Thai families due to its poor reputation in Thailand, so if you excluded Thai people from the internal travel (which is probably mainly due to business related) what are the true figures, or does no one know?
Posted by Tbs on March 6, 2012 14:18
Editor Comment:
The turnstiles work both coming and going, and every arrival and departure is counted in the total. For airports, every movement counts. Immigration keeps a tally of incoming visitors. Estimates put the number of international visitors to Phuket at about two million a year in 2011.