Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Surat Thani Airport (VTSB) serves the southern Thai province of the same name, sitting some 21 km west of Surat Thani city on a single long runway shared with the Royal Thai Air Force. For the visiting VFR or IFR pilot it offers a straightforward ILS-equipped approach into a busy regional gateway that also doubles as a military airbase.
Surat Thani Airport is a joint civil-military aerodrome in southern Thailand, combining scheduled airline operations with an active Royal Thai Air Force presence as home to the 4th Air Division/7th Wing of the Air Combat Command. For a simulator pilot it is a useful regional destination in the south of the country, with a single long hard-surface runway, ILS guidance and a mix of airline and military traffic that makes for an interesting approach and departure environment.
The airfield lies at 9.1361N, 99.139E at an elevation of 16 feet, in Tambon Hua Toei, Amphoe Phunphin, within Surat Thani province in southern Thailand, about 21 km west of Surat Thani city centre.
Surat Thani has a single physical runway, 04/22, of hard surface construction measuring 9,860 feet in length. Both directions are lit, and an ILS is provided for runway 22.
The following frequencies are published for Surat Thani: APP 129.6 MHz, ATIS 33.8 MHz, GND 121.9 MHz, RDO 657.7 MHz and TWR 122.7 MHz. Runway 22 is served by an ILS approach.
The airport's predecessor was known locally as Donnok Airport. After a construction site was chosen for the present airfield, development plans were drawn up, but the government suspended the project in 1973 in favour of supporting Phuket International Airport instead; by 1975 local residents were calling for the Surat Thani project to be reconsidered. The airport later became notable for a serious accident: on 11 December 1998, Thai Airways International Flight 261, an Airbus A310-200 (registration HS-TIA, named Phitsanulok) inbound from Bangkok, crashed into a rice paddy about 3 km from the airport while making its third landing attempt in heavy rain, killing 101 of the 146 passengers and crew aboard.
Surat Thani Airport today functions as a busy regional international airport while remaining an active Royal Thai Air Force base, home to the 4th Air Division/7th Wing of the Air Combat Command. It ranks among Thailand's ten busiest airports by passenger numbers, and an upgrade programme has been announced to expand terminal capacity and strengthen the runway to handle greater traffic in future.