Immigration police check Phuket airport’s readiness ahead of holidays
The holiday island’s airport gets into gear to ensure hassle-free immigration procedures for arrivals during the upcoming holiday
The Royal Thai Police’s Immigration Bureau on Thursday inspected the readiness of Phuket International Airport ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, when foreign visitors to the resort island are expected to spike.
Led by Pol Lt General Panumas Bunyalak, acting commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, and joined by Monchai Tanode, the airport’s director, the inspection focused on ensuring the convenience and safety of tourists using the airport during the long holidays.
Panumas said the Immigration Bureau has been complying with the government’s policy of increasing ease of entry for foreign tourists, in line with the waiving of visa requirements for over 90 countries and territories in a bid to boost tourism.
He said the document scanning process for incoming passengers has been streamlined, with some unnecessary steps eliminated. Immigration police officers have also been supervising the snake line queuing at the airport’s immigration counters, as well as increasing deployed personnel during weekends and holidays to cope with an increased passenger load.
He added that additional intelligence officials will also be stationed at the airport during the upcoming holidays to screen suspicious foreign visitors and ensure public safety.
Monchai said the airport expected 354 flights per day on average during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Of these, 210 are domestic flights and 144 are international.
He estimated that some 60,000 passengers would use the airport per day during the period, 110% of the number before the Covid-19 outbreak. About 40,000 of them are domestic passengers and 20,000 are international ones.
In November, which is the start of the high season for tourism, Phuket airport saw an average of 23,000 passengers per day. Russians are the largest group of foreigners visiting Phuket, at an average of 4,100 people per day, followed by Chinese (1,800/day), Indians (1,790/day), Australians (780/day), and UK (730/day).
