How To Fly To Thailand Without Going To Bangkok

As Bangkok Airport remains closed, here are some suggestions of other Thai airports you can fly into direct from abroad without needing to go via Bangkok. It might also be useful if you need to exit from the country

Despite the troubles at Bangkok Airport, there are still many tourists coming to Thailand – and so the question is, how can they minimise the inconvenience of Suvarnabhumi Airport being closed?

There are still plenty of ways to fly into Thailand without needing to enter or exit via Bangkok Airport. Chiang Mai, Phuket, Koh Samui and Krabi all have international grade airports that have regular flights direct from other countries.

Therefore the easiest way into currently get into Thailand is to go via one of Asia’s other main hubs — Kuala Lumpur (nearest to Thailand), Hong Kong or Singapore.

From there you can fly into one of Thailand’s major tourist airports direct without having to go through Bangkok. You can check on Compare Flight Prices for the cheapest fares.

Here’s a quick, non-exhaustive list of which airlines fly into which Thailand tourist areas – if you have further info about any routes I’ve missed, please leave a comment. UPDATE: added direct flights to Chiang Mai.

Direct Flights to Chiang Mai:
Chiang Mai from Kuala Lumpur
AirAsia

Chiang Mai from Singapore
Silk Air

Chiang Mai from Hong Kong
No direct flights

Direct Flights to Phuket:
- Phuket From Hong Kong
DragonAir

- Phuket From Kuala Lumpur
Air Asia

- Phuket From Singapore
Air Asia
Tiger Airways
Silk Air (thanks, Kanok!)

Phuket from Penang
Fireflyz (thanks, MyBKK!)

Direct Flights to Koh Samui:
- Koh Samui From Hong Kong
Bangkok Airways

- Koh Samui From Kuala Lumpur
Berjaya Air – little known Malaysian airline

- Koh Samui From Singapore
Bangkok Airways

Koh Samui from Penang
Fireflyz

Koh Samui from Subang
Fireflyz

Direct Flights to Krabi::
- Krabi From Oslo and Munich
http://www.krabi-airline.com/
New airlines starting up in Dec 2008 – unsure if it will actually go ahead

- Krabi From Hong Kong
No direct flights

- Krabi From Kuala Lumpur
AirAsia

- Krabi From Singapore
No flights (Tiger Airways cancelled their route March 08)

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