Phuket Airport Sees Double-digit Drop In Passengers

[saneroad]

Phuket Flights: High Season Visitors Nosedive

By Chutima Sidasathian

Monday, December 22, 2008

DECEMBER passenger flight numbers for Phuket are grim, and worse is probably on the way, even if passengers are not.

Last year the total for December reached 603,459. This year the total is tipped to be 420,000, a drop of 30.40 percent. That's an extremely gloomy start to the high season.

Flights to Phuket are down 8.67 percent so far on 2007. This means that the eagerly anticipated six millionth flyer to the island won't be making it, at least not in 2008.

December's passenger flight numbers are grim, and worse is probably on the way, even if passengers are not. Last year the total was 603,459. This year the total is tipped to be 420,000, a drop of 30.40 percent.

Officials who had been hoping to see 6,160,703 passenger flights this year now estimate the total for the year should be 5,666,767 compared to 5,707,365 last year.

Complete story: http://phuketwan.com/tourism/phuket-flight...ollows-takeoff/

Edited December 22, 2008 by saneroad

[NBT TV Phuket]

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Phuket Airport statistics showed a record high of 5.7 million passengers for last year 2008, but only half a percent more than 2007.

The Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited, which manages Phuket International Airport, have informed Andaman News about their final full year statistics for 2008. They showed a total of 37,991 aircraft movements, down 6.88% from 2007. December alone was 3,282 down 22.23% compared to December 2007. The total numbers of arriving, departing and transit passengers in 2008 was 5,730,748 showing an actual increase of 0.46% compared to the same 12 months in 2007: There were 2,851,403 arrivals which form the base of tourist figures to be confirmed later. These are therefore still the highest ever annual passenger numbers at Phuket, despite the airport closure in late August & Bangkok airport closures in late November due to protestors, causing flight & passenger cancellations. (December alone had 483,981 passengers down 19.80%)