Thailand Airport Guide

Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok is the latest and greatest Thailand airport. Suvarnabhumi is situated to the East of Bangkok and is a half hour bus or taxi ride from the city centre.

The airport was officially opened on 15th September 2008 for limited domestic traffic and opened to international traffic a few weeks later.

The first time used the airport was in December 2006 when many of the initial teething problems had been resolved. No surprise really that a project of this size did not run like clockwork from day 1. The airport site spans across 8000 acres of land making it a major engineering project.

However, with uncharacteristic speed, the problems were resolved and it is now recognised as a show case for modern international airports, and rightly so.

Don Mueang Bangkok - Until Suvarnabhumi was opened, Don Mueang was the premier Thailand airport for international travel, since then it was briefly used for Domestic customers by Thai Airways, but its main purpose now is for freight. However there are still domestic flights available through One to Go and Nok Air.

Chiang Mai Airport - is the main hub to the north and is growing in importance with the increase in tourism in the North of Thailand

The airport is conveniently located within 10 minutes drive of Chiang Mai and there are plenty of taxis available to serve the 2 million customers that use the airport every year

The domestic and international terminals are conveniently located in a single building and there some nice coffee shops (my weakness) as well as a few reasonable value for money restaurants. The shopping facilities are obviously not as vast as Suvarnabhumi but sufficient for an airport of this size.

Koh Samui Airport - Our first visit to Koh Samui we were slightly confused by the lack of a concrete terminal building; we were delighted and surprised that this Thailand airport blended in with the surroundings; it really does have a genuinely tropical feel to it. The airport is very unique, or at least we think so from our experience of flying to tourists destinations of any significant size.

Koh Samui Airport is owned and operated by the privately owned Bangkok Airways and they run regular daily flights to the Island.

Thai Airways have also started a regular service to Koh Samui using Boeing 737s since 2008.

Krabi Airport - is ideally situated to serve the tourist areas from Krabi town to Ao Nang, the principle beach resort. There is a modern terminal that reflects the areas popularity as a major tourist resort.

There are regular flights to Bangkok with Thai Airways and Air Asia. It is also possible to get a direct flight to Australia but sadly not to the UK.

Udon Thani Airport - This airport is in the more remote areas of Thailand but the town is a principle gateway to Laos. The Airport has a reasonably modern terminal where you can take domestic flight to and from Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

The Royal Thai Air Force use the airport to double up as a military base and you are just as likely to see a military jet take off as you are a passenger flight.

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