New Phuket airport terminal ready
The expansion of the international passenger terminal at Phuket International Airport has been completed and is expected to be open for the upcoming high season, airport director Squadron Leader Pornchai Eua-aree said.
The Bt120-million expansion started in April 2004. The ground floor of the new wing features check-in counters for chartered flights, which will mostly be international flights. The second floor has the international departure lounge.A meeting to discuss how to best prepare for the high season is due to be held today. "We will also talk about the management of passport control with the Phuket Airport Immigration superintendent," Pornchai said. Airport Immigration has 16 passport control desks processing about 900 tourists an hour. However, Pornchai said he was concerned that when several planes land at the same time, Immigration would not be able to serve all the tourists quickly. "Even if it's not very often that tourists face long delays, just a few hours in a year, it can ruin Phuket's reputation," he said. "We will have to add more facilities because we initially prepared for chartered flights that had about 200 passengers, but last year when we were nearly finished with the project, we had big aircraft such as Boeing 747-400s that can carry as many as 600 passengers coming in." Phuket Gazette
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