There will be two flights a week on Thurs and Sat with departure from Tokyo at 10am and arriving in Phuket at 3.25pm on the same day.

Previously the flight was canceled due to the dwindling number of tourists visiting Thailand after the tsunami. Thailand has since rebuilt and rejuvenated the affected areas and tourism is yet again thriving.

Links of Interest:

• Japan Today
  

A parade of shops has recently opened on the other side of the street, outside the expanded Kata Beach Resort. Access to the shops is now via a narrow footpath. Traffic headed for Kata beach has to enter and leave via the beach road's northern access.

The closure of the road is in some ways a practice run for the traffic flow along the Kata beach road, in front of Club Med. A proposal to turn the road between the Kata Beach Resort and the Karon Tessaban into a walking street each night after 6pm is likely to be tested next high season.

The roadworks should be finished by June 20, provided there were not too many delays caused by rain.

Links of Interest:

• Kata Beach Resort

From their Captain's Log below:

As the seasons change in Thailand, so do we here at Destination Air. We have already started to implement our Monsoon Season landing locations in some spots and will be adjusting our pontoons accordingly over the coming weeks.
By the end of this month, we will be safely operating in all of our regular destinations with the exception of only a very few. West winds dictate that we abandon places like Patong and Bang Tao for a short few months while we will continue to service Phuket from the airport and Chalong Bay.
We have the flexability at almost all our 40+ approved locations to find a place to safely land for charter operations and in only rare circumstances will we have to adjust and arrange for a short ground transfer to your final destination.

More on this issue can be found here:

• Destination Air
• Thai authorities and their little games with Destination Air
  

The ambitious plan seems to target mainly taxis and tuk tuks. Patong Deputy Mayor Chairat Sukkabal explained at a press conference at Phuket Provincial Hall:
"Tuk-tuks and hawkers are currently taking up all the parking spaces along the beach road, leaving tourists with no place to park. We will provide more parking spaces and change traffic regulations to force all cars to park on the new road [the road currently under construction parallel between Nanai Rd and Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd, which is expected to be completed before the next high season], away from the beach. Taxis will be allowed on Thaweewong Rd only to drop off passengers.

Local residents call this plan not only ambitious, but maybe overly so (some used much stronger words), because previous measures and plans to prevent taxis from parking illegally have been totally fruitless, as the over 1,000 tuk tuks parking nightly along beach road in the red and white (parking forbidden) zone demonstrate clearly.

Lt Rattaket Manmuang of Karon Police Station reported the cause of the accident as follows to local media: "The bus driver, 34-year-old Paitoon Panbuddee, said that he lost control of the bus after the brakes failed as he was driving down the hill. The bus side-swiped two oncoming vehicles – a pickup and a van. A motorcyclist then collided with the van.". The police officer went on to say: "There were about 40 workers on the bus. Most of them are fine, but one man is now in intensive care. We have charged the bus driver with negligent driving causing injury."