now 2 international airports

[bozzman101]

now two choices sawan or don
mabey pole time for who wants to go where???

[VincentD]

Swampypoom is the international airport, and will stay so. Donmuang is open, and has been open all this time, for charter flights and VIP flights.

Some domestic airlines - not all - will transfer back to DM sometime in the next one or two months. I believe these are the smaller operations without international connections.

[lomuamart]

I think you'll find that after yesterday's cabinet meeting, DM will be re-opening for international flights as well. Prime Minister was saying that this was because of more visitors arriving?
It's expected to take about 2 months to get DM ready again.

[Guess]

I think you'll find that after yesterday's cabinet meeting, DM will be re-opening for international flights as well. Prime Minister was saying that this was because of more visitors arriving?
It's expected to take about 2 months to get DM ready again.

My wife heard the same thing on Thai TV this morning.

[VincentD]

...DM will be re-opening for international flights as well.

Hard to say. DM IS operational as an international airport at the moment, it never did shut down. It was the airlines that relocated to Swampypoom.
Inside info tells me the international airlines and the large domestic airlines with international connections are reluctant to move back due to financial constraints - it takes a lot of money to move your operations over again, less than four months after the first move, plus keep staff at both.
Perhaps political pressure may change that.

[Dicky]

When we were in Thailand last January went past Utapo and saw a couple of civilan aircraft on the tarmac.Think one may have been Russian.Is this also an International Airport?

[The understudy]

As I heard that international Filghts to DM would be picked by the Transport Ministry and some Domestic Airilines and low cost Airlines can operate from DM as they wish.

Now my Question is what Airportcode will DM get and can I still distinguish Flights into Suvarnabhum and Don Muang?

For anyone who wrote off Don Muang Airport just as I had done, this part we can eazily call " The Don Muang Ressurection" until the by VincentD rightfully dubbed "Swampypoon Airport" is fully fixed!

Love Hua Hin!!!
Your's The understudy

[STEVE G]

Now my Question is what Airportcode will DM get and can I still distinguish Flights into Suvarnabhum and Don Muang?

The understudy, at the moment Don Muang has the IATA code DMK, which is the one used for ticketing and the ICAO code VTBD, thats the one used for air traffic and route planning. Hopefully these will stay the same when it starts taking international traffic again.

[VincentD]

Dicky, Utapao is military, but can take heavy aircraft.

[STEVE G]

Utapao is actually an international airport as well as an Air Force base. It’s not used much, and the flights, mainly charters, service such attractive destinations as Moscow, Almaty, Dhaka, Inchon and Kadena. So unless you have exotic tastes in travel destinations I wouldn’t get too excited!

[STEVE G]

Confusion continues, now the government is saying that Don Muang is not going to re-open as an international airport due to pressure from airlines, (many carriers have refused to move) now it will just be for domestic services, maybe.

[PeteC]

Utapao is actually an international airport as well as an Air Force base. It’s not used much, and the flights, mainly charters, service such attractive destinations as Moscow, Almaty, Dhaka, Inchon and Kadena. So unless you have exotic tastes in travel destinations I wouldn’t get too excited!

My home many moons ago for two years. It's Thai Navy and very, very little military traffic as the Thai Navy doesn't have many planes. Quite a few old props used for coastal observation and a fleet of small, old Harriers they got when they bought the aircraft carrier from Spain. Many Thai Navy planes in pieces also after being used for spare parts. I've seen a few F-16's land there but I think manuevers by the Thai Air Force, not Navy. Thai Airways has their biggest maintenance facility there and you do see many of their aircraft doing test flight things after their maintenance is completed.

Russian charters, I think recently a direct Korean Airlines flight from Seoul once a day and, Bangkok Air has 1 or 2 a day to Samui and perhaps Phuket. The far revetments where B-52's and KC-135's used to be parked is now home to many aircraft from fleets all over the world that have been repossessed and impounded by the leasing companies and banks. Some have been their a long, long time.

Still several US aircraft there from time to time as it's the home base in SE Asia for the folks still doing recovery of remains in Vietnam, as well as base for the joint military exercises they have.

Runway 11,500 +- feet long, about 3 meters thick and up to about a year ago it was also an emergency backup field for the space shuttle. Why it was taken off the list I don't know. The runway and taxiways are actually in as good condition now as it was in the B-52 days almost 40 years ago.

It's open to the public on Childrens Day if anyone interested. Many old ghosts of the past live there. Pete

[STEVE G]

Pete, I don’t know about U-Tapao, but some of the runways in Europe that had been designated as emergency space shuttle landing sites were removed from the list after the Columbia disaster, as the approach would be over heavily populated areas and would endanger people on the ground.

[PeteC]

It's probably a Thai government thing Steve. The US didn't pay enough for the space that was reserved for a "maybe".

FYI, If anyone has a good internet connection and can use Google Earth, focus in on U-Tapao. Beautiful runway coming in only a few meters off the Gulf of Thailand. You'll see what that airbase used to look like as the concrete foundations of all the buildings that were there, but now gone, are still visible. It is a primo site for an airport, except that it is too far from Bangkok. Pete

[STEVE G]

Pete, I just had a look at the satellite picture of U-Tapao and that place is big, the parking ramp looks like it’s at least a mile long.