New direct flight from Oman makes its way to Phuket

A new direct flight from Oman made its way to Phuket International Airport on Monday. The Oman Air flight arrived in Phuket from Muscat, Oman’s capital.

The flight carried a total of 162 passengers, who received HKT souvenirs upon arrival, The Phuket Express reported.

Phuket has seen a number of new direct flights arrive recently. The flagship airline of Russia announced on November 12 that it would be adding 14 new flights a week from Russia to Phuket. This was less than two weeks after Russian airlines made their triumphant return to Phuket.

On November 7, Phuket welcomed its first LOT Polish Airlines flight. The flight carried 252 passengers from Warsaw to Phuket.

On November 3, an inaugural flight from Uzbekistan arrived in Phuket on Sharq Airlines. The flight carried 238 passengers to Phuket from Uzbekistan’s capital city of Tashkent.

As of October 26, the kingdom witnessed 7,349,843 international tourists arriving, surpassing the seven million mark. It’s put the country within its goal range set by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) of seven to 10 million visitors for 2022. Phuket International Airport was reported to be the second busiest port of entry, after Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

In September, the TAT said that Malaysians made up Thailand’s biggest tourist group this year. The next three countries with the most tourists were India, Laos, and Cambodia.

The increase in flights from Russia has opened the floodgates of Russians pouring back into Phuket, quickly overtaking Indian tourists that were the main demographic. Between May and September, Russian tourist arrivals averaged about 3,200 to 4,200 per month. Last month that number ballooned to 23,089.

In Phuket this month, Russia has dwarfed other demographics arriving on the island province. Russians doubled the number of arrivals coming from India, the second biggest demographic, and more than tripled the third biggest demographic, Australia. Russians accounted for a quarter of all of the 83,428 international arrivals to the island.

TAT’s goal is to draw 10 million foreign tourists to the “Land of Smiles” by the end of this year.