Surat Thani International Airport is an international airport in Tambon Hua Toei, Amphoe Phunphin, Surat Thani province in Southern Thailand. It is located west of downtown Surat Thani, and is also home to the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) squadrons. It has a single paved runway and is the tenth-busiest airport in Thailand in terms of passengers, handling more than two million passengers annually.
Airlines and destinations
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Statistics
Passengers
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; font-size:95%"
!Year
!Total passengers
!Change
!Total flights
!Total cargo (tonnes)
|-
!2001
|180,621
|
|1,531
|4,646.35
|-
!2002
|163,321
| 9.58%
|1,510
|2,472.06
|-
!2003
|162,661
| 0.40%
|1,518
|2,070.01
|-
!2004
|202,250
| 24.34%
|1,629
|1,858.76
|-
!2005
|206,342
| 2.02%
|1,793
|1,698.92
|-
!2006
|291,094
| 41.07%
|2,812
|1,412.82
|-
!2007
|359,467
| 23.49%
|3,316
|1,061.95
|-
!2008
|344,748
| 4.09%
|2,904
|1,464.76
|-
!2009
|394,096
| 14.31%
|3,266
|1,301.99
|-
!2010
|505,776
| 28.34%
|4,460
|1,152.31
|-
!2011
|595,184
| 17.68%
|5,251
|1,369.13
|-
!2012
|816,484
| 37.18%
|6,308
|1,541.00
|-
!2013
|1,080,508
| 32.34%
|8,457
|1,568.07
|-
!2014
|1,319,660
| 22.13%
|10,175
|1,571.29
|-
!2015
|1,856,315
| 40.67%
|13,257
|1,601.26
|-
!2016
|2,032,042
| 9.47%
|13,813
|1,575.77
|-
!2017
|2,247,344
| 10.60%
|15,396
|1,036.80
|-
!2018
|2,108,289
| 6.19%
|14,000
|1,144.99
|-
!2019
|1,864,997
| 11.54%
|12,340
|829.87
|}
History
thumb|Surat Thani Airport in 2008
thumb|300x300px|Surat Thani International Airport in May 2022
Donnok airport
Surat Thani Airport's predecessor is known locally as Donnok Airport (). It is located in Makham Tia subdistrict, Mueang Surat Thani district, around away from Surat Thani City, and has a single, gravel paved runway, 800 meters in length.
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 World War II 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. Details of the project are as following:
- The airport's apron will be expanded to increase its capacity up to 11 Boeing 737s at a time. The car park will also be expanded to handle up to 700 cars at a time.
Accidents and incidents
On 11 December 1998, Thai Airways International Flight 261, an Airbus A310-200 (HS-TIA, Phitsanulok), bound for Surat Thani from Bangkok, was making its third landing attempt in heavy rain when it crashed into a rice paddy 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
- Technical details on Surat Thani Airport
- Aviation Safety Network on the 1988 crash
- Surat Thai Airport Statistics (Thai)
- Surat Thani Airport History (Thai)