Transit flights to Phuket start Feb 1
BANGKOK AIRWAYS WILL START operating two special sealed-route flights from Bangkok to Phuket per day for tourists arriving under the Phuket Sandbox scheme from Feb 1.
The first flight, PG5275, departs from Suvarnabhumi Airport at midday and arrives at Phuket International Airport at 2:05pm.
The second flight, PG5279 departs from Suvarnabhumi Airport at 5:10pm and lands in Phuket at 7:15pm.
“Passengers on the flights are required to follow guidelines issued by the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), which requires that each passenger entering the kingdom of Thailand must possess the complete set of the relevant documents,” said a release from the airline announcing the flights.
The documents required include a Certificate of Entry (COE), medical certificate with a laboratory result indicating that COVID-19 is not detected (done by RT-PCR technique and issued no more than 72 hours before traveling), vaccine certificate or proof of vaccination, travel health insurance (worldwide or including Thailand) covering health care and treatment expenses for COVID-19 disease (or any other guarantee valid throughout their stay in the Kingdom) with a coverage of no less than US$50,000, said the announcement.
Additionally, all passengers must undergo required COVID-19 tests (RT-PCR method) during their stay in Thailand, the announcement added.
The move to launch the new direct “sealed route” flights follows a notice shared by Phuket officials on Jan 10 confirming that tourists travelling to Phuket were not permitted to transit in Bangkok to Phuket ‒ but were permitted to transit in Bangkok on flights to Samui, a service exclusively provided by Bangkok Airways.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) confirmed that the Bangkok Airways flights had been approved, but provided no further information as to whether any other airlines will be operating similar sealed route flights from Bangkok to Phuket.
The CAAT has posted a notice explaining the requirements for passengers arriving on transit flights to Sandbox areas, but did not confirm when the requirements came into effect.
The notice marked the following procedures (verbatim):
Transit Flight same Plane: Passengers shall undergo health screening and document check, immigration and custom procedures at the destination airport or SANDBOX airports
Transfer Flight: Passengers shall undergo health screening and document check, immigration procedures at the first airport of entry before continuing their travel to the SANDBOX province in this case, customs clearance will be processed at the destination airport.