Phuket to Singapore, a ghost airport and an (almost) private flight
When you enter an airport to catch a flight, in this pandemic period, you never have any idea [...]
Singapore Airlines
Star Alliance
HKT
Thailand
When you enter an airport to catch a flight in this pandemic period, you never have any idea what will happen.
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In the past month I have been traveling a lot and I have to say that all the European stopovers I went to seemed very close to those in the "world before."
The news from overseas says, more or less, the same things. U.S. airlines are back to making profits, flying almost the entire fleet, and preparing to return to pre-pandemic numbers much sooner than expected.
The East of the world, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether. The southern continent is closed, even the bubble between NZ and AUS has been put on hold. Japan is open, practically, only to athletes Of the Olympics.
In Asia the only news, waiting for. Singapore confirms willingness to reopen borders in September, it is Phuket and the sandbox, or the protocol that effectively reopened the island to tourists from all over the world.
My trip was just in the direction of Thailand's largest island, the one that in the former world attracted tens of millions of tourists every year and instead, since July 1, has seen arrive just under 13 thousand visitors, myself included.
Phuket Airport
When I set foot in the airport, I immediately had the feeling that I was in a provincial airport, where there are just a couple of flights a day (as happened when I flew from Parma to Bari with Ego Airways), and not at an international airport that recorded 19 min passengers in 2019.
It was completely deserted, and when I say completely I mean there was no one except 6 passengers waiting for the check-in for SQ flight 735 to Singapore to open.
Given the amount of documents that must be checked, and which change depending on the passenger's final destination, they are required to arrive 3 1/2 hours before the flight.
As mentioned, the bureaucracy involves more than just checking your ticket and passport, you have to check molecular buffers, passenger locator form, entry requirements at airports where you will have a stopover, and those at your final destination.
With so few passengers, it really doesn't make sense to get people in so early, perhaps it would in an airport jammed with flights. Over the 24-hour period, however, there were only four flights departing, of which 2 of Singapore Airlines, the airline that flies the most to Phuket right now (also more than Thai Airways), so it would have taken only 60 minutes in advance.
The striking thing is that there are so many staff anyway, for such an empty airport, there is almost an embarrassment in choosing which line to go to in order to go through security and customs, the open runways were many.
Behind the controls, desolation reigns supreme. The sterile area contained a duty free shop and a pharmacy, with no customers. The only food court open was a Subway in the center of the terminal.
The international terminal houses five lounges: two are Thai Airways lounges, these are twin lounges on the upper floor. Of course, both were closed, and not because there were no flag carrier flights scheduled. Normally, having the status Gold in the KrisFlyer program, I would have been able to access these lounges since Thai is part of the Star Alliance like Singapore Airlines. Larger but equally closed are the two Coral lounges, located next to Thai's.
Then there is a fifth VIP lounge, also Coral, in the opposite area of the terminal from the entrance.
The Coral Vip Lounge
This lounge is where Singapore Airlines business class passengers are invited and is also accessible to Priority Pass holders.
Inside the lounge, there were 3 of us in total: all business class passengers on the flight to Singapore.
The lounge is not particularly bright, but it has the advantage of having a terrace that allows a view of the runway. Too bad it was in an obvious state of disrepair (and there were no planes to look at on the runway).
Attention to cleanliness in the lounge is total, and all food is packaged in single-serving units.
I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and quantity of the offer available, especially considering that the flight following mine would leave 6 hours later.
Various hot and cold food offerings, a well-stocked refrigerator of drinks and even a few treats. A coffee and cappuccino machine and cookies, absolutely more than enough food and beverage offerings.
The flight
As mentioned, Singapore operates two daily connections between the city-state and the island.
The route in question is operated with a 737 configured in 2 classes. Business class with 12 seats divided into 3 rows of 4 seats and then classic 3-3 economy as on all carriers using Boeing's bestseller.
The seats are very comfortable and spacious, they do not become a bed but can be tilted quite a bit and because of the leg and foot support they are very comfortable if you want to take a nap, in any case the flight lasts less than 2 hours.
Also available to business class passengers is an Ipad and a pair of headphones, the same ones found on long-haul flights. The ipad can be used to connect to the airplane's wi-fi and watch movies and TV series. If you want, you can still use your own device to do the same thing.
The service is comprehensive, even if the flight is short. Three different menus and a large number of drinks are offered.
Of course it doesn't compare to what you get on a long-haul flight, but if you compare it to the business class that we are used to having in Europe for flights of similar duration, there is absolutely no match, both from the standpoint of the seat and in-flight service.
In conclusion
While walking around Patong beach, deserted and dark, reminds us that we are still in a period of in-between and that the Sandbox is only the first attempt to return to a normal world, but in some respects similar to the world before, the return flight immediately brought me back to the stark reality, the one made up of rules and bureaucracy and still too few people around for nonessential reasons.
