"a disastrous airport if flying international"
K Lewis (Netherlands)
✅ Verified Review |
This is a disastrous airport if flying international. There are huge queues for checking the luggage, then for checking in with the airline and then for immigration. You should avoid the airport at all cost, better have an international flight to Bangkok and from there a domestic flight to Phuket. As a business class flyer it took me 2 hours to pass immigration, so beware if you fly economy. The airport building is new, but the whole experience at the airport is like being in the good old Soviet communist days.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | November 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"Queues and queues and queues"
Mark Horsfield (United Kingdom)
This is the first time I had used the new terminal and what an awful experience it was. Queues and queues and queues. It simply cannot cope with the mid morning transit flights to Bangkok to route onto the wider international connections let alone the twice daily Emirates 777 to Dubai. Check in for an Aeroflot flight and the place is gridlocked. 40 minutes just to check in for a short flight to KL and there were only about 15 people in front of me. Only two check-in desks open by MAS which is probably an issue for MAS rather than Phuket airport but quite why it was such a slow check-in process suggests there are other issues. The queue for immigration then stretched almost out of the airport, around 70 metres. Once inside the immigration area (after 20 minutes of queuing) you then faced a 45 minute wait as you watched utter chaos and a near total lack of staff or working immigration counters. This exists over a month after the terminal opened. With increasing regularity flights were called by staff walking across the front of the queues holding cards with the flight number on leading to even more chaos and disorder. By the time I cleared security after immigration my name was being called to board immediately. I arrived at the airport at 8.30am for a 90 minute flight to KL departing at 10.25am and had minutes to spare. The new airport consists of a series of bottlenecks and little in the way of management or resources to deal with them. The old terminal was scruffy but it was far, far better. Is there a plan to improve it? What is immediately required is all immigration desks to become operational and manned during the known peak periods at the airport. Is this really so difficult to organise and manage? I have been travelling to Phuket for 25 years and this is the third derivation of the airport I have seen but the least successful and convincing. The appropriate authorities need to get a grip and fast.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | October 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"a truly horrible experience"
S George (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | Disastrous airport! 60 minutes to get luggage x-rayed by security, then 45 minutes waiting for Thai Airways check in, then 60 minutes waiting in passport queue. A truly horrible experience. Nobody cared - security staff, airline staff and immigration staff. Needs a whole new management team, otherwise tourists will go to other destinations.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | October 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"terminal run so poorly"
L Bird (Australia)
Horrible experience and I have never encountered a terminal run so poorly. Security screening as you enter the check-in hall is crowded and takes very long time. Mayhem, no order. Don't worry though you must go through another security check after customs! Coral lounge was full, I mean at capacity, we could not get a seat and and had to leave. There is a large fake grass area outside the lounge, where it could be doubled in size but due to poor planning everyone has to stand in a small area.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | October 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"pure mayhem"
W Thomson (New Zealand)
✅ Verified Review | We were at the airport 2.5 hours before our short flight to Kuala Lumpur. We were checked online already but still waited half an hour just to drop of our bag. When we went over to Immigration the queue was so long it didn't fit into the immigration area! So the queue started already in the departure hall. After 90 Minutes in the queue, a lady on the other side of the passport boxes showed a sign with a Russian airline on it. What a silly and useless (nearly dangerous) thing to do. After that, law and order in the queue was gone. Hordes of Russians tried to jump the queue from everywhere and it was more chaotic than I have experienced it before. The officials from Phuket Airport haven't done anything at all to maintain some order. Pure mayhem.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | September 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"immigration took 1 hour"
K Chang (Malaysia)
✅ Verified Review | Phuket airport is the worst on earth. Arrival immigration time took me 1 hour to queue. However departure immigration took even longer. I have been queuing since 8.55am till now at 10.15am i'm still waiting at the line. My flight is scheduled at 10.25am but I'm still at the line queuing. No officer or whoever can assist.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | September 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"absolute carnage"
Darrin Borthwick (Australia)
Departed from the new airport terminal in Phuket - after I got there absolute carnage. 2 hours in customs then security - I was lucky my flight was delayed anyway. 12 years in and out of Phuket every 4 weeks by far my worst experience. Can't wait for high season - I know about teething problems but really security after customs?
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | September 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"a very bad experience"
Daniela Weber (United Kingdom)
The worst experience for us passing through passport control at Phuket airport in 30 years flying around the world. Shortly before we reached the counter a member of staff held up a sign calling for passengers from a Russian flight and chaos broke out. People from behind started to jump the queue and pushing in. There was no clear line anymore and no security staff to maintain order. Lots of arguments between customers. Can this be possible in a modern airport nowadays? Yes it is possible! We waited 1.5 hours to get through. A very bad experience.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | September 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"it was a free for all"
Lewis Barker (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | Departed from the new terminal that had only opened one day before we left. The minibus dropped us off at the wrong terminal, along with everybody else, so waited for the free shuttle which was fine. The checked luggage was scanned before we checked-in then it was given a tag to say it had been checked, but you could still add things into it after this which doesn't seem very secure to me. Got the bags dropped off and went to join the queue for passport control along "snaking" line with about 150 people in it. After about 40 mins in the queue a Thai woman started shouting from the front then about 60 Thai/Chinese passengers jumped the barriers and it was a free for all to skip the queue. No idea what was going on and no control by the security, would have expected something a bit slicker than this for a new terminal. Got through passport control after an hour to a largely empty terminal with few shops and restaurants but lots of seats. Not all screens were working so had to walk quite far to fine out the gate for our flight.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | September 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"airport is old and tired"
2 reviews Jon Flitcroft (United Kingdom)
Not a good experience. At our departure airport we were told all bags would be checked through to our final destination (USM). However on arrival at HKT we had to collect bags and then join a huge queue outside the airport to put our bags through a security check before checking in to our domestic flight to Samui. Standing outside in the high temperature/humidity after two 7 hour flights was not the most pleasant way to transit through HKT. Airport is old and tired, however there is a new terminal being built which hopefully may improve the transit process.
Experience At Airport | Transit |
Date Visit | March 2016 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |