The Koh Samui Airport
Bangkok Airways recently began direct flights between Samui and Hong Kong. Expatriates working in this city account for more than half of Phukets buyer group and many are now gaining interest in Samui especially after Dragon Air and Thai Airways cancelled their direct flights from Hong Kong to Phuket.
The route will bolster the villa rentals market, and will make Samui an even more attractive weekend break destination for Hong Kong-based Chinese and expatriates alike. A number of prominent Chinese and Taiwanese tour operators are now promoting Koh Samui in many large cities in China & Taiwan that are within a 2-5 hr flight to Hong Kong which provides a convenient flight connection directly to Samui.
Samui airport expansion
Bangkok Airways has begun work on expanding its privately owned airport on Koh Samui. The airport, which is the main point of entry for visitors to the Gulf island, has won several design awards in the 12 years since it was built and has helped drive the islands explosion of real estate activity.
"We currently have four terminals which can handle up to 150 passengers each at a time,"Group Captain Charoon Peetong, Vice President – Airports of Bangkok Airways says. "The new terminals will maintain the same tropical architectural style, but will have much greater capacity and will have five pavilions. We will be able to take up to 800 passengers at a time.
The existing airport will be maintained as office building, and the capacity for planes on the runway will be doubled to eight planes at a time. This will undoubtedly be a prelude to an increase in the number of flights, from the current 34 per day. In fact Mr. Charoon revealed that Bangkok Airways is in negotiation with the AAT (Airports Authority of Thailand) to extend the airports opening hours.
The airline also intends to increase its usage of Boeing 757 jets, whilst maintaining its current fleet of turbo propelled ATRs.
The expansion is scheduled to be finished by the end of the year and is expected to increase the airports overall visitor numbers by up to 10% a year.
