Classic chicken-and-egg situation

In the month of December 2004, before the tsunami, Thai Airways International (THAI) flew more than 400 flights to Phuket. By February 2005, the number had dropped to half that number. Major hotels such as the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa and the five properties in the Laguna Phuket complex, which all had large numbers of rooms to fill, were sure that many tourists wanted to come to Phuket, but simply couldn't get flights.
The hotels were desperate to change this situation and twisted many arms including that of the then-Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Juthamas Siriwan, to help push THAI to provide more flights. But it was a classic chicken-and-egg situation: On one hand, tour agents could not book people for holidays in Phuket because all flights to the island were full. On the other, THAI was unwilling to make more seats available without guarantees that it could fill them.

Bitterness

Dragonair

The most public setback to Phuket's air transport came the month after the tsunami, when Hong Kong-based Dragonair, a 22-year-old airline which had first flown to Phuket in 1986, announced the temporary suspension of its three-flights-a-week direct service between Phuket and Hong Kong. Five months later, Dragonair declared that this temporary suspension was indefinite. There was simply not enough demand to justify reviving the service, it explained. The airline's main customer base was mainland Chinese whose fears about the restless spirits of the tsunami dead kept them from even considering flying to areas hit by the waves.

Oraual Paethong of Taurus Travel

Oraual Paethong of Taurus Travel, who has long experience of the Thai airline and travel business, commented, "I was not surprised but I felt sad about the situation then; having airlines providing direct services to Phuket is a measure of how healthy the island's tourism is." Unlike the hotels, however, she had some sympathy for the airlines. "I understood that they had to make some tough decisions because [initially] there simply not enough passengers and they could not go on carrying financial losses [on the Phuket route]."

Khun Oraual saw a bigger problem elsewhere. She noted bitterly, "I found that tourists were not receiving clear information about how fast Phuket was recovering. At that time there was still a great deal of [negative] reporting by international media that damaged our tourism. "I think we all did a good job [of helping Phuket recover] but outsiders couldn't see it. That [we succeeded] was confirmed when we received the inaugural New Frontiers Award at Arabian Travel Mart 2006 in Dubai." she add.

The dragon flies again

Dragonair resumes flights to Phuket

During the hard times, some airlines did continue to serve Phuket and, indeed, new airlines began to enter the market. In October 2005, for example, the Singaporean-Australian budget airline, Jetstar Asia, launched a four-times-weekly service between Phuket and Singapore, which undoubtedly helped revive tourism. Around New Year, there was more good news: in December 2006 and January 2007, THAI's flights were back up about to 360 and to 375 respectively.

And on December 15, Dragonair - now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific - resumed flights to Phuket, at more than double the pre-tsunami frequency. Sutthisak Pungtamawatthanakun, Dragonair's Phuket office manager, told Phuket.com that, thanks to its worldwide network, Cathay Pacific can feed passengers from around the world into the Phuket route.

Sutthisak Pungtamawatthanakun

In anticipation of booming market demand, Cathay decided to have Dragonair operate daily flights from Hong Kong to Phuket using a 158-seat Airbus A320.

Flights arrive in Phuket at 17:25 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, taking off again at 18:15. On the other four days of the week they land at 11:35 and take off for Hong Kong at 12:20.

Khun Sutthisak said that Dragonair sees Phuket as a well-known tourist resort. The airline expects Cathay Pacific to feed passengers from the US and Europe into the route, while Dragonair will bring in passengers from its own main markets, Hong Kong and China.

A very bright future

"I foresee tourism growing in Phuket," Khun Sutthisak said. "My only worry is the ability of the island's infrastructure to keep up with the growth."
Khun Orauan said, "It seems that Phuket's tourism future is looking quite bright. The island now has more flights coming in than it had even before the tsunami."