PHUKET INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 27 July 2009 : by J Young

Customer Rating : 2/5

Airport feels and looks old and tired. Not all of the shops were open, food options near the Gates 9-10 were very limited and the VAT refund office was closed (at 2pm on a Saturday!) Bags screened as you went inside the airport doors which meant you had to line up outside in the heat. Check in was smooth and immigration departure was smooth. Plenty of seats available but there werent too many departing flights either. It needs a bit of redevelopment to bring it up to scratch.

PHUKET INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 31 December 2008 : by M Le Roux

Customer Rating : 3/5

This is a tiny place, it feels like being somewhere in the countryside. It's almost unbelievable that this place serves so many foreign passengers. The big advantage is of course that you don't have to walk very far, check-in and boarding gates are close to each other. The downside is that there is absolutely nothing to do here if you have a spare hour. There are 2 or 3 small souvenir shops and about as many places to eat. The decor is non-existent and looks a bit old, not the fanciest place you'll ever see. But they are efficient and things happened quickly because we had an early flight and it wasn't too busy. Just don't plan on wasting a few hours here, or to eat here for that matter.

PHUKET INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 30 November 2008 : by J Williams

Customer Rating : 4/5

Phuket International Airport is to means like Singapore however I had no problems and I am just relieved they have an International Airport! At the end of the day its only an airport and you only spend a couple of hours there. I didn't get a chance to sit down as by the time we had something to eat and last minute souvenir shopping it was time to board the aircraft.

PHUKET INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 30 April 2008 : by D Keam

Customer Rating : 2/5

Phuket "International" Airport is not really of international standard! Small, woefully short of seating and quite frankly, the departure area is very grotty and could do with a really, really good clean. I refused to use the toilets as the stench carried out into the surrounding area. The staff there were however very polite and did their jobs well (as do most Thai people). Surely it must be making plenty of money considering how popular the area is? Why isn't the management authority spending a bit of money to at least keep it clean? Phuket is a beautiful area and the airport does not reflect that.

Phuket International Airport by H Leong

6 April 2008   Customer Rating :

Pretty much average all round. Been to Phuket many times, and there have been negligible improvements made to the airport throughout the years. The terminal is usually very crowded and can feel cramped, and long lines at the check-in desks and customs are common; it is the second busiest airport in Thailand. There is a huge lack of seating around the departure lounge; I have almost never sat down waiting for a flight. Signs are okay, apart from some confusing ones; there was one where the sign indicating the location of a single gate had 2 arrows pointing in opposite directions. Staff are quite friendly, but all the procedures at the airport are inefficient, but at least the security checks at the entrance are nowhere near as long as some I have encountered elsewhere. Dining and shopping options seem decent, but again nothing special, as with the environment of the airport - rather dim, but fairly clean. Phuket Int'l Airport isn't horrible, but pretty much average in every respect. I hope that renovations are imminent, as a beach resort town as famous and popularly-visited as Phuket deserves an airport that is better than merely average.

Phuket International Airport by Ian Baker

12 March 2008   Customer Rating :

At end of February flew Bangkok Air into Phuket; taxi took maybe 30 minutes to pass through the toll gate to get out of airport. Too many cars, not enough gates. Need fast electronic system for regular users - taxis, buses etc. Later flew out to go to Bangkok . Very slow to get into airport via baggage screening, facility woefully inadequate for the number of passengers. Slow check-in too. Hard to find seat in departure lounge. Whole airport needs upgrade.

Phuket International Airport by Thomas Parker

25 February 2008   Customer Rating :

Departing on Thai domestic to Bangkok. Plane delayed 2 hours due to congestion at Immigration. Phuket immigration cannot cope at busy times especially when everyone tries to clear immigration at Phuket instead of Bangkok. I went down the domestic route as I thought I had 3 hours to clear immigration in Bangkok. Big mistake! I made it by the skin of my teeth onto my connection to Dubai but I know that many others didn't make their connections. Should Thai have held up a domestic flight because people were delayed clearing Immigration?? Be warned it could happen to you.

Phuket International Airport by Jacob Pfleger

28 April 2007   Customer Rating :

It was very interesting to note on a recent trip from Phuket that they do have the security at the front door for check-in. But some incredibly intelligent person who planned airport security obviously forgot about the staircase going from departures down to arrivals and that there is no screening point at the arrivals exit. So some potential "trouble maker" to say the least could easily smuggle a "weapon" or worse up to departures through the arrivals exit and then up the staircase into departures where the staircase is located past the initial security point. Very stupid planning.

Phuket International Airport by Steve Koenig

15 November 2006   Customer Rating : n/a

In the arrival area there are several different commercial hotel "services." We ended up at the Thai hotel association desk. Although we wanted to go to Karmala Beach, we had no reservations, and not a real good idea of where to stay. The association said they had few hotels at Karmala and, even though we said we wanted to avoid Patong, pushed a hotel they said was in a quiet area just north of Patong. Brochure looked nice. When we arrived by taxi, it turned out to be nothing like in the brochure photos. We went to a hotel we found in a the Rough Guide. Phoned the hotel association, which promised we could get our 1000 Baht deposit back when we returned to the airport for our departing flight. And they were true to their word. All of the services do, of course, push hotels from which they get fees. Caveat emptor.

Phuket International Airport by Neil Ramsay

19 October 2006

Arrived from Singapore with MI. Lines at immigration were minimal. Baggage was on the belt when we eventually arrived. Minimal interest from customs. Departure was just as easy but suggest a 2 hour minimum pre boarding arrival. Baggage security check at the door and plenty of check in desks. 500BHT international departure tax, then immigration which was painless if not disinterested. Then a personal security check which is very thorough. Watched with interest as a passenger got "caught" with a sharp object. You would think people would have learned by now. Anyway the staff was firm and polite and despite protestations the errant passenger was sent back to the check in to have his "object" put in the hold. Plenty of duty free shopping and places to eat. Extremely clean toilets. Minimal room in departure lounges although you are only there a few seconds as they call you for your flight from the main lounge. A nice airport

Phuket International Airport by Hugues Martel

26 March 2005

Phuket has a nice and well-equipped airport. The airport is clean. People are friendly. Food and drinks are available at very reasonable prices. Custom officers are very efficient. As the airport is quite small, walking distance from the check-in desks to the gates is very short. However the airport must get very crowded during the holidays season.

Phuket Int'l Airport by Barry Hackett

15 April 2004

Phuket airport is the epitomy of confusion. To catch a flight to Koh Samui, we had to queue outside the front door of the terminal onto the concourse to go through security checks. Poor signage meant we lined up for the wrong airline. It also seems odd that when you use the men's toilet, the door is open so you are in full view of every one in the arrivals hall. But with all its faults it is still a great place and the people are friendly, the food and drinks are good and reasonably priced and I would love to be passing through immigration right now for a couple of weeks stay in paradise.

Phuket Int'l Airport by Bryan Chao

8 October 2003

Phuket airport is a small airport with big plane arrivals. Arriving passengers and departing passengers could collide if there were no traffic control by gate agents since the departing passenger have to cross the hallway where the arriving are rushing to the baggage claims. It is certainly not a good layout.

Phuket Int'l Airport by Alan K Fong

2 October 2003

Airport is old and quite small with very little gates. The customs and immigration lines were horrendous. There were only four to five officers working at the counter - and when you get a jumbo jet with around 350-400 pax arriving be prepared for at least an hour to an hour and a half in line to get past customs. Once past customs, we picked up our luggage which had already been pulled off the belt because another flight was arriving! After that, we proceeded our way towards the money exchange bureau. There we encountered another long long line up of pax exchanging for baht currency (apparently the airport exchange bureau offers better rates compared to the local hotels). The line up was ok, but the problem was when it was our turn to get the exchange, the lady who worked there said she ran out of baht because of too many people exchanging!! This definietly was not a good way to start a holiday trip! The taxis outside the airport were mostly operated by private individuals with vans who gathered a group of people together and strapped their luggage on the top of the vans! Was a messy situation when you get around 500 ppl outside the taxi stand scrambling for a ride to their respective hotels! On our departure, we went upstairs to check-in and the counter agents were quite efficient. Like the airport in Bahrain (BAH) we had to check-in and then go to a separate counter to pay for the airport tax! The customs this time was a brisk and we were waiting at the boarding gate within 10 minutes of checking-in. There were no airport lounges in sight so nothing much to do.. The plane arrived an hour late so we walked around the duty free shops and did some last minute shopping. The toilets were clean and the shops consisted of some good bookstores and souvenirs and the Thai people were always friendly. If you plan to pass thru HKT be sure to get off the plane quick and line up first at the immigration otherwise, you're in for a nasty wait!