I've just been looking at flights and came across the My Travel Website. It appears that from 1st November they are starting to fly to Phuket direct from Manchester and Gatwick. I don't know if this is a new venture or something they do for each high season. I wasn't aware of any direct flights to Phuket from the UK before today. Apologies if this has been covered before.
There's not much information on there. I would guess its quite a low frill flight. But the price quoted looks good.
Here's the link,
http://www.mytravel.com/AniteNextPag...HTONLY&t=5045/