Last year, Phuket International airport was a bustling little airport on a tropical island paradise in Thailand, dubbed as the Pearl of the Andaman Sea. today Phuket airport is only a shadow of its former glory, with tourist arrivals down by more than 64 percent.

With the southern Andaman provinces of Krabi, Phuket and Phang-nga all hit by the Tsunami waves which hit Thailand on 25 December 2005, Phuket Airport has become the next sufferer in the aftermath of the Asian Tsunami.

According to Phuket's Airport director, Pornchai Ua-Aree, the month of January 2005 saw a 27 percent reduction in the number of arriving flights, with only 2,151 flights landing on the airport compared with 2,936 arriving flights in January 2004. Of these 2,151 flights only 777 were international flights which is 55 percent less International flights than the previous year.

Although the drop at Phuket Airport in Thai domestic flights was less severe than the International flights, many of domestic flight arrivals the flight arrivals were accounted for by arrival of aid and teams of Tsunami help volunteers.

The number of passenger arrivals slumped by 65 percent in January 2005 with only 181, 511 travelers arriving compared to 509,841 persons arriving in January 2004. International arrivals received a 89 percent drop, from 241,513 arriving International passengers in January 2004 to only a mere 27,026 International arrivals in January 2005. Domestic passenger arrivals were only down with 43 percent in January 2005.

Director Pornchai admitted that some flights to Phuket International Airport had still not been resumed, with around 44 percent of regular incoming flights cancelled. On the other hand, he noted that many International Airlines were slowly beginning to fly on Phuket again, including Orient Thai flying from Hong Kong.