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Shanghai-Phuket Daily Direct Flights To Take off Next Week
(CTN NEWS) – Officials from Phuket and the national tourism board have not yet made the news public. The daily flights have not yet been confirmed by Phuket International Airport’s operator, Airports of Thailand (AoT).
The Bangkok Post reported this morning that the information was accurate (Jan 10)
Beginning on Wednesday, Juneyao Air will run the daily flights (Jan 18)
The Bangkok Post reported that Suksit Suvunditkul, President of the Thai Hotels Association (Southern Chapter), stated that the number of direct flights and visitors from China remained relatively low compared to other nations.
Chinese tourists arriving from Xiamen were welcomed at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday (Jan 9). Photo; MoTS
According to the article, independent tourists who arrange their travel plans online should begin visiting the island as early as next month.
The AoT flight itinerary for January, released on January 3, does not include direct flights from China to Phuket.
Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul welcomed 269 passengers who arrived at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 12:19 PM yesterday before learning of the first direct flights from China to Phuket (Jan 9).
The minister of tourism and sports, Yuthsak Supasorn, the governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), joined the welcoming committee.
#Thailand received first group of #Chinese travelers on Mon after China optimized travel protocols. Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul and other ministers came to Suvarnabhumi Airport to welcome Chinese tourists. pic.twitter.com/b9aRi4Wecy
— Ji Rong嵇蓉 (@JiRongMFA) January 10, 2023
The passengers from mainland China arrived in Thailand on Xiamen Airlines flight MF833 from Xiamen, making it the first flight from that country to touch down in Thailand since March 2020.
3,465 individuals landed in the nation yesterday on 15 aircraft that arrived from China in total.
Anutin said that the necessity for all international visitors to be completely immunized to enter Thailand had been eliminated immediately at the greeting of the Chinese immigrants yesterday.
The policy change represented a complete reversal of the admission restrictions Anutin had just four days earlier declared.
More than 300,000 Chinese tourists are expected to visit Thailand in the first three months of this year.
According to Airports of Thailand, 7–10 million passengers from China are anticipated to use all of Thailand’s airports, including Phuket, in 2023.
The TAT increased its objective for foreign visitor arrivals in 2023 from 20 million to 25 million last Friday.
That was, however, before the demand for “evidence of vaccination” was removed.
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, around 20.5 million Chinese tourists flew into Thailand through AoT airports in 2019.
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