Phuket Airport

Phuket airport is the second biggest in the country after Bangkok

There are only 5 international airports in Thailand, the other three are Krabi, Chiang Mai and Hat Yai. Aircrafts come in from Asia and Europe with strong increase from Russia and China. 

Some Airport Data, IATA code is HKT. Location is at longitude 98° 18' 45" and latitude 08° 06' 38" and 82 feet above sea level, it is 32 km from the city and a few km south of the north end of the island. The airport can handle 24 flight operations per hour and is officially open 24 hours which is de facto not true, the runway is 3,000 m long and 45 m wide.

Phuket Airport from above

In times of cheap flights congestion in front of the immigration counter at arrival is inevitable. From time to time the airport gets an upgrade but the worst is probably at arrival when 2 aircraft come in within a few minutes time frame, usual wait in front of immigration can be up to one hour, there is no problem with going through custom, people are very friendly and tolerant. 

Cheap flights to Phuket

The biggest problem is transportation because the companies doing this job by minibus, limousine, taxi and bus make all kind of illegal tricks to cheat the traveler. The other day (2013) a group of EU ambassadors filed a official complain because of this and other problems ( jet ski scam etc.) but only lip service was the answer. 

The problem is that there is no public transport on the island 

since decades "influential" people (the mayor of a part of Patong and his son) block anything in this direction to make sure their limousines and tuk-tuk have passengers. Their monopoly prices are high, this is known to the authorities but they do nothing. Actually in September 2014 they got rid of the guy first they tried via a unsuccessful manhunt by the police and military and after they did it the "Thai Way" a killer sent him to hell. 

Only one half rotten bus is heading for downtown from sometimes in the morning to around 7 pm. This bus only leaves the place when it is filled up, means circling around between arrival and departure for about 20 minutes trying to get some more passengers. On top of it after leaving they don't drive the main road to town which would be the fastest way, they take the route to the next beach and again circle around to get the bus even more scrammed with local passengers etc. all together a drive to downtown can easily take up to 3 hours. 

There are minibuses around which usually only start after they are full and that can take a while, again after around 7 they try to shift the people to the limousines which are much more expensive. Now after comparing all this it is probably the best to take a taxi, they are at the right side after exiting the building. Just tell the driver to turn on the meter, if he refuse and ask around Baht 600,- (this is around the double of a similar ride in Bangkok) to downtown you could take it or ask at the counter for another one, the metered fare is about this price. They other day when I arrived in the evening the same story I finally got the airport police involved to find a taxi which was willing to turn on the counter.

If you are hungry use the restaurant upstairs, 

the food is excellent and not expensive. Avoid the fast food counter opposite to check in, their food is lousy, the employees totally ignorant and funny, just the items what you want to order is not available today, this is a "Chester Grill" outlet but when asking for a chicken leg, they usually answer, today not available.

Inside the domestic departure area is also a fast food restaurant from Burger King, their food is quite good, at least they serve real hamburger, about 10 mm thick. Not this flat junk you get at McDonald's downtown where the hamburger is 3 mm thick, actually looks like a small size tortilla between some bread. 

Everything is very similar to Bangkok's new and old airport. The real problem is that the whole organization is wrongly done. Thai immigration officers need about 3 times longer compared to their Singaporean counterpart. Beside of the wrong organisation they have a similar problem as in KL, having many counters but only a few are open.

Behind the counter row usually around 5 people are sitting around, chatting,  eating and whatever but working?

Here are some more airport pictures

 

Beach at the waterfront

Endless beaches to the south

Tropical waters and streams