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The crush at Phuket International Airport seems set to continue

Seven Figure Surge for January Passengers

Wednesday, February 20, 2013
PHUKET: Phuket International Airport has surged to a new record by coping with well over a million arrivals and departures in January 2013.

The little airport that could topped the 9.5 million passenger record for 2012 then went one better by surging up 4.61 percent to 1,047,557 passengers last month.

Forecasts are that Phuket's February, with 867,874 passengers arriving and departing Phuket last year, will easily surge past that mark this year.

January last year was the first time that arrivals and departures topped one million on Phuket and this year proved to be even better.

The original Phuket airport was built to cope with 6.5 million passengers so topping 10 million in 2013 - now more than a 50-50 chance - would be a remarkable achievement.

Because Phuket only has one runway and will still have only one runway even when the new international terminal opens in 2015 - or 2016 - there has to be a finite maximum capacity.

Just what that maximum capacity is, nobody is saying. But the revamped airport, predicted to be capable of handling 12.5 million, is clearly not big enough for future requirements if Phuket's current popularity grows at present rates.

Through October (791,364) November (838,712) and December (945,798) the first half of the 2012-13 high season tallied 2,575,874, up 17.33 percent year on year.

To overhaul January's huge one million record from 2012 is another major achievement.

What's always worth remembering, though, is that there's no telling whether these passengers are wearing singlets or dressed in Armani suits.

And we've seen some absolutely ridiculous guesstimates of the numbers of tourists on Phuket.

Although international passengers outnumbered domestic passengers 611,242 to 436,315 in January, over most years they even out.

Taking into account other factors, Phuket attracted about 2.37 million international tourists last year. This year, the way things are going, that could surge to 2.5 million for the first time.

Airports of Thailand reports its January data showed increases in aircraft movements and passengers at six airports under its management.

Its latest data on air traffic in January shows an improvement in aircraft movements Thailand-wide of 13.82 percent to 48,357 from 42,484 movements as well as passenger traffic rising 14.11 percent to 7,665,428 from 6,717,806.

Comments

Comments have been disabled for this article.

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Good for business but ultimately bad for the island.

Posted by Jakub on February 20, 2013 11:17

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Shouldn't the title read "Seven Figures"?

Posted by jimmy on February 20, 2013 15:56

Editor Comment:

Yes, it should. Thanks.


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