I know it seems like a lifetime ago that the first plans were put in place for the construction of a new terminal at Phuket International Airport to almost double its capacity, and here we are, in the final stages of construction and almost ready for a test-run. After undergoing many delays and postponements of the initial construction date, we will reach a millstone on Sunday 14th Feb when the new terminal has a trial run.
The new terminal cost 2.45 billion THB to build, and the official opening is penned in for the 1st June 2016, although on Sunday a Thai International Airways flight will land at the terminal to test it out. We will find out from the flight whether the arrivals section is up to scratch and ready to go, or not.
From then until May, there will be testing of all the systems, leading up to the eventual opening in June.
The new terminal will take the airport’s capacity to over 12 million, because at the moment it can only handle 6.5 million a year, although it actually handles much more than that, which has a real knock-on effect across the board because of overcrowding.
