Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Don Mueang International Airport (VTBD/DMK) is Bangkok's original international gateway, lying some 25 kilometres north of the city centre and about 46 kilometres from its modern counterpart, Suvarnabhumi. One of the oldest continuously operating airports in the world, it now serves primarily as Thailand's low-cost carrier hub, offering a busy VFR and IFR training and airline environment for the simulator pilot.
Don Mueang International Airport serves Bangkok, Thailand, and is operated as part of the Thai airport network. Once the country's principal international airport and long-time hub of Thai Airways International, it now functions mainly as a secondary hub for low-cost domestic and international carriers. For the simulator pilot it offers a historically rich, high-capacity airfield with parallel long runways, full ILS coverage and a busy mixed traffic environment close to Bangkok's other major airport, Suvarnabhumi.
The airfield sits roughly 25 kilometres north of central Bangkok and about 46 kilometres from Suvarnabhumi Airport, placing it within the busy Bangkok terminal area. Traffic inbound or outbound can expect to operate in proximity to Suvarnabhumi's own approach and departure paths given the short distance between the two fields.
Don Mueang has two parallel hard-surfaced runways. The main pair, 03L/21R, is 12,122 feet long, lit, and equipped with ILS on both directions. The second, 03R/21L, is also lit, with the 03R threshold giving a declared length of 11,511 feet and the 21L threshold 10,371 feet; 21L is additionally equipped with ILS. Field elevation is 3 feet above mean sea level.
Radio services at Don Mueang include Approach on 119.4 MHz, Arrival on 125.5 MHz, ATIS on 126.4 MHz, Clearance Delivery on 154.96 MHz, Ground on 121.9 MHz and Tower on 118.1 MHz. Both main runway ends of 03L/21R and the 21L end of the second runway are served by ILS, supporting instrument approaches into the airport.
Don Mueang is regarded as one of the world's oldest international airports and among the oldest still operating in Asia. It began life as a Royal Thai Air Force base, officially opening on 27 March 1914, having already been used earlier as a landing field. The first commercial flight to Don Mueang took place in 1924, making it one of the earliest sites of commercial aviation anywhere. During the Second World War the airport was occupied and used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, reverting to Thai control after the war. In the postwar decades Don Mueang grew rapidly, adding terminals and cargo facilities through the 1970s and 1980s and serving for many years as the principal hub of Thai Airways International and the country's main gateway for international air traffic. Its original IATA code, BKK, was reassigned to the newly opened Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2006, after which Don Mueang's international role diminished before being revived for low-cost carrier operations.
Don Mueang now operates as a secondary hub for low-cost carriers, handling both domestic and international low-cost flights alongside general airline traffic. It was ranked by the CAPA Centre for Aviation as the world's busiest airport for low-cost carrier passengers in 2016, and in 2017 it handled around 37.1 million passengers, split between international and domestic traffic. Terminal 2 was reopened in December 2015 to handle domestic flights, while Terminal 1 serves international services.