Surat Thani International Airport


Surat Thani International Airport is an international airport located in Phunphin District, Surat Thani Province, in Southern Thailand. The airport, 21 km west of Surat Thani City, also is home to the Royal Thai Air Force squadrons. Surat Thani 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

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 fighter aircraft. 702 Squadron operates two airborne early warning and two transport SAAB SF340 airplanes. A further two SF340s are on order.

Airport upgrade

In 2019, the Department of Airports announced a plan to upgrade the airport to accommodate 3.6 million passengers a year, up from two million.

Accidents

On 11 December 1998, Thai Airways Flight 261, an A310-200, 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.