The Phuket International Airport has clarified after a story of passengers who were asked to get out of a minivan has gone viral in social media.
The story went viral in social media this morning (September 29th) with a video and a message, “A minivan driver arrived at the airport to pick up customers who booked online. Airport staffers stopped the minivan at the airport exit before they asked the passengers who had booked online to get out of the minivan and take a registered taxi from the airport directly.”
The Phuket International Airport has issued a press release this afternoon which concluded, “Yesterday (September 28th) a minivan taxi arrived at the domestic terminal to pick up passengers who booked via an online application.”
“The Phuket Airport is an aircraft control area as stated in the Ministerial Regulations. The minivan driver has offended the regulations.”
“Taxi vehicles are not allowed to enter the airport except when they have permission from the airport. The airport has a registration system for taxi drivers. Regulations have been clearly communicated to passengers and taxi drivers.”
The event caused much discussion and anger on social media, with many commenters feeling that the forced registration system traps customers to limited choices and high pricing versus allowing the customer to choose how they will travel, such as on an online application.
Source: Phuket Express