Surat Thani International Airport ( th, ท่าอากาศยานสุราษฎร์ธานี) is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer r ...

located in Phunphin District, Surat Thani Province, in

Southern Thailand Southern Thailand, Southern Siam or Tambralinga is a southernmost cultural region of Thailand, separated from Central Thailand region by the Kra Isthmus. Geography Southern Thailand is on the Malay Peninsula, with an area of around , bounde ...

. The airport, 21 kilometres west of Surat Thani City, also is home to the

Royal Thai Air Force "Royal Thai Air Force March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 9 April 1937 (Royal Thai Air Force Day) , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles ...

(RTAF) squadrons. Surat Thani International Airport has a single paved runway. It is the tenth-busiest airport in Thailand in terms of passengers, handling more than two million passengers annually.

Airlines and destinations

Terminated

Thai Airways Company Thai Airways Company or Thai Airways (TAC; th, เดินอากาศไทย) was the domestic flag carrier of Thailand. Its main base was the domestic terminal (Terminal 3) at Don Mueang International Airport (then known as ''Bangkok I ...

- Bangkok–Don Mueang *

Thai Airways International Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, trading as THAI (, th, บริษัท การบินไทย จำกัด (มหาชน)) is the flag carrier airline of Thailand. Formed in 1961, the airline has its corporate h ...

- Bangkok–Don Mueang, Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi *

Thai Lion Air Thai Lion Mentari Co. Ltd, trading as Thai Lion Air ( th, ไทยไลอ้อนแอร์), is a Thai low-cost airline, operating with Thai partners as an associate company of Lion Air of Indonesia. The carrier operates from Bangkok's Do ...

Chiang Mai Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...

Hat Yai Hat Yai ( th, หาดใหญ่, , also Haad Yai or Had Yai) is a city in southern Thailand near the Malaysian border. It is south of Bangkok, and has a population of 156,802 (2019) in the city itself and an urban population of about 400,00 ...

Statistics

Passengers

History

Donnok airport

Surat Thani Airport's predecessor is known locally as Donnok Airport (). It is located around 3 kilometres away from Surat Thani City, and has a single, gravel paved runway, 800 meters in length. Later, the runway was expanded by the

Royal Thai Air Force "Royal Thai Air Force March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 9 April 1937 (Royal Thai Air Force Day) , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles ...

and became 1,000 metres long. The runway is only capable of handling small planes, such as

DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

The current airport

Due to the original airport's close proximity to Surat Thani, The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) planned a new airport away from the city. A former airfield used in

The Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

by the military was chosen as the site for the new airport. After the construction site was chosen, a plan for the airfield's development was proposed. However, in 1973, the government suspended the development project and used the funds to support Phuket International Airport's operations instead. In 1975, many residents in Surat Thani called for the project's reconsideration. The

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

and CAAT showed interest in the project and the airfield's development began in 1978. The airport was officially opened on 15 April 1981. It had a single runway, 2,500 metres in length. In 1993, the runway was expanded to support larger commercial flights and military operations.

Future upgrades and developments

The Department of Airports announced a 1.7 billion

Baht The baht (; th, บาท, ; sign: ฿; code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand. SWIFT ranked the Thai baht as the 10th-m ...

plan to upgrade the airport. Details of the project are as following: # The airport's

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

will be expanded to increase its capacity up to 11

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

s at a time. # The electrical system and wires will be moved underground. # The

airport terminal An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from an aircraft. Within the terminal, passengers purchase tickets, transfer th ...

will be expanded to accommodate up to 3.6 million passengers a year. The car park will also be expanded to handle up to 700 cars at a time. # The

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

will be upgraded to increase its strength. # Construction of the new transportation center to handle more passengers.

Military use

As well as being a commercial facility, Surat Thani Airport is an active RTAF base, the home of 4th Air Division/7th Wing Air Combat Command. 701 Squadron, "Shark", flies twelve SAAB JAS-39 C/D

Gripen The Saab JAS 39 Gripen (; English: ''griffin'') is a light single-engine multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta wing and canard configuration with relaxed stabilit ...

fighter aircraft. 702 Squadron operates two

airborne early warning Airborne or Airborn may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Airborne'' (1962 film), a 1962 American film directed by James Landis * ''Airborne'' (1993 film), a comedy–drama film * ''Airborne'' (1998 film), an action film sta ...

(AEW) and two transport SAAB SF340 airplanes. A further two SF340s are on order.

Accidents and incidents

On 11 December 1998, Thai Airways Flight 261, an A310-200 (HS-TIA), bound for Surat Thani from Bangkok, was making its third landing attempt in heavy rain when it crashed into a

rice paddy A paddy field is a flooded field of arable land used for growing semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in southern China, associated with pre-Au ...

about from the airport; 101 of the 146 passengers and crew aboard were killed.

References

External links

Surat Thani Airport at Thaiflyingclub.com
– includes pictures
Aviation Savety Network on the 1988 crash
{{authority control Airports in Thailand Buildings and structures in Surat Thani province Airports established in 1981