Phuket Airport

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.

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 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 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 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.

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!