Samui Airport gets international airport, but does anybody care?
The reason why Phuket is streets ahead of Samui when it comes to tourism is down to the airport. The decision years ago to open an international airport in Phuket rather than Samui led to the rapid development of Phuket, while Samui has continued to trail behind.
One of my gripes with Samui in general is the island’s airport, because it’s owned and monopolised by Bangkok Airways. Flights in and out of Samui are damn expensive. The early-morning and late-night flights (two in total) to and from Bangkok can go for 2,000 baht, but all other flights Samui to Bangkok cost well over 3,000 baht. When you can fly to Phuket for half that, it’s no wonder people choose to do so. Then there’s the advantage of having a large number of destinations going to and from Phuket Airport.
The news that Samui Airport is now running an international terminal is welcome, but it doesn’t change the fact that Bangkok Airways is still in control. Naturally, the new terminal comes with a boutique shopping complex. They’ve spent about 500 million baht redoing the airport, but as far as I can see, there are still no other carriers servicing it. The list of destinations from Samui is now Bangkok, Hong Kong, Krabi, Pattaya, Singapore and Phuket, all serviced by Bangkok Airways.
There are even plans for some sort of luxury hotel to be added to the airport. In the age of budget airlines, I think that Bangkok Airways is going about all of this the wrong way. Samui isn’t that exclusive or beautiful.
Samui Airport can now handle 16,000 passengers a day, but given the choice of flying there or to Phuket from Bangkok, I know where I’d rather go. No matter how many flights Bangkok Airways adds, they’re still missing out on really transforming Samui.
Facts and figures from a Gazette story
We now have some FireFlyz flights out of Malaysia. They did some deal with monopoly Bankok Airways. Can fly Penang and KL now.
I think more coming, talk of Thai airways having landing rights for some flights soon.
Samui is catching up with you, watch out. :-)