Several tough choices are available to the state-controlled airport operator, each with its own constraints.
Sqn Ldr Sita Divari, chairman of the airport’s owner, Airports of Thailand (AoT), said the alternatives include adding further capacity at the airport’s current site, building a greenfield airport in Phang Nga or using Krabi airport, some 180 kilometres from urban Phuket, as a relief airport.
Some 9.5 million passengers passed through Phuket airport last year, and AoT expects the number to increase to 10.5 million this year, 11 million next year and 12 million in 2015. That’s when the B5.3 billion expansion will be completed, allowing the airport to handle 12.5 million passengers a year.
The airport is now forced to turn away many commercial flight requests.
Sqn Ldr Sita said further expansion of the airport through land acquisition nearby is not viable an option because of exorbitant land prices.
Another possibility might be extension out into the sea through reclamation, but this could encounter environmental problems that would impede progress and make capital outlays prohibitively high.
One possibility might be the resurrection of a ten-year-old proposal to built an airport in Phang Nga, said the AoT chairman. A decade ago a new airport was proposed for Koh Phra Tong, a flat island just off the coast of Phan Nga.
Another would require improvements to Krabi airport, now operated by the Civil Aviation Department, so that it can handle larger aircraft and more passengers, allowing it to be used as a relief airport for Phuket.
Pratuang Sonkham, the general manager of Phuket Airport, said it would be possible to extend further the new terminal already under construction by relocating AoT staff housing. Potentially this would increase the airport’s annual capacity to 15 million passengers, he said.
But passengers are not the only constraint, he said. Phuket airport will definitely need a second runway in another 10-15 years.
Sqn Ldr Sita said shortages of aircraft aprons and take-off and landing time slots are more critical constraints for Phuket airport than restricted passenger capacity.
But Mr Pratuang said these limitations will start to ease as construction of five more aprons is completed this year as part of the continuing expansion, raising the number of aprons by a third.
But Sqn Ldr Sita strongly advocated Krabi airport being turned into a secondary airport for Phuket, accommodating immediate demand for passengers heading for the resort island.
He said he would discuss the matter with carriers such as Thai Airways International to see if they can switch some of their Phuket flights to Krabi instead. AoT may be prepared to offer incentives for them to do so, he added.
Further down the line another constraint will be the length of Phuket’s runway, which already cannot handle fully laden large capacity aircraft take-offs, such as Boeing 747s and Airbus A380s.