Phuket Airport

Thai international staff great and accommodating. Horrid conditions at the domestic departure concessionaires after security. The seating area was like a rubbish dump perhaps because of no trash cans. Clearly no cleaning staff present. Unacceptable standard for Thailand's premier island destination. AAT should look at Bali Langkawi and Samui for examples of how to run airports.

Arrived at 2pm and queued for 10 minutes at immigration. Didn't have any luggage and was out of the airport by 2.20pm. Departure was smooth. Had an early morning flight at 8.40am so we arrived at 6.30am to find that the airport was already bustling and almost all shops and restaurants were open. The best food options are before immigration so arrive early if you need to eat something substantial. The staff while not friendly were professional.

Horrible experience. The departure procedure is a pain. No queue management and baggage security in the entrance door to the terminal. Chaos around the check in desks and just to top it all off security staff who are rude and disrespectful beyond belief. We had our baby's water bottle emptied in a demonstrative fashion in front of our eyes without explanations and in fact without any verbal communication whatsoever. Once in the air-side part of the terminal you find that all the real restaurants were actually before the security check. And that's after you have queued for 30 minutes in the slowest ever immigration queue. Arrogance and ignorance is the name of the game here.

Dreadful experience both on arrival and departure. Waited one and a half hours to be processed through immigration because we didn't want to pay the scam money to be processed quickly. On departure our bags were security checked 4 times with same experience as Peter Yeoman see his 19 August 2013 review. Two of the checks involved having our bags opened and searched through every single zip and pocket. They couldn't even tell us what they were looking for.

We waited for over one and a half hours at immigration whilst staff chatted to each other. It was taking between 3-4 mins for them to check each passport at all of the exits except the end one where if you paid 100 bahts it took 20-30 seconds. It certainly felt like it was deliberate just so you would pay as many people were doing because they were so fed up with standing around.

Immigration departure just terrible. Immigration officer rude yelling hand gestures. Very disappointing for an official country rep and considering the good nature of the Thai people. Granted lots of people queuing up and the chaotic line management from security screening to immigration boots does not help but I have never experienced such a disrespectful behavior of an official towards tourists and visitors. Simply unacceptable and reflects badly on the Thai immigration department.

Immigration was just terrible. My partner went to the counter and the immigration officer indicated there was something wrong by sitting there using hand gestures to indicate the number 1 and 2. He did not speak a word to either of us and sat there pointing around. When we tried to ask him what was wrong he just flashed 2 fingers at us and refused to say a word. We then figured out after a while that we needed to show him our departure card as well as our arrival card. When I went forward to his desk he asked me 'what do you want?' in clear English. I was so surprised he could speak English after all and secondly what a stupid question. I asked him if he had any spare departure cards and he told me to go away and find mine repeatedly he refused to provide me with any or direct me to a place where I could get one. Luckily we did find our cards when we brought him our departure cards he and his colleague talked and laughed between each other about our confused reactions to his rudeness right in front of us. As we tried to book a minicab to our hotel in the stalls outside the airport the girls behind the counter shouted at us as we decided to go with another company. Our first contact in Phuket and what a warm welcome to Phuket it was.

The new Phuket airport can't come soon enough with the poor and overcrowded existing facilities. But the biggest issue with the airport is the lack of willingness to tackle the taxis scam issue. Taxis are about 8-10 times the cost of Bangkok and it is a really unpleasant experience dealing with them. The taxis claim to use a meter but on numerous occasions then refuse to use the meter and quote a price for example of 600 baht to go 10 minutes down the road. The airport needs to make the pick up and drop off experience a lot easier and more friendly.

Worst airport experience. Rude immigration staff. No lounge available to non-members. Not allowed to take 2.25 ltr of alcohol to Australia had to be 100mls. I hope never to come through this airport again.

Overall the airport is okay immigration process quite quick in my case (I did not have to get a visa on arrival otherwise it might be a chaotic experience. Airport itself quite disorganised pretty basic facilities but good enough if you don't have to wait too long for your flight.