International travel broadens the options

The smoking room in the domestic departure area of Thailand’s Phuket International Airport is to be closed at the end of this month, but the smoking room in the international departure area will remain open, according to a story in the Phuket News.

And this is a pattern that will be repeated throughout the country as all smoking rooms within domestic airport facilities will be closed while those in international airport facilities will be retained.

Pratueng Sornkham, director of Airports of Thailand, Phuket, said the closures followed the enforcement of a new Ministry of Health no-smoking law.

In the future, domestic flight passengers travelling through Phuket would be able to leave the terminal if they wanted to smoke.

But once they had checked in and gone through security into the departures area, they would no longer be able to indulge their habit.