Samui Airport

Samui International Airport (Thai: ท่าอากาศยานสมุย) (IATA: USM, ICAO: VTSM), also known as Ko Samui Airport or Koh Samui Airport, is a privately owned international airport on the island of Ko Samui (Koh Samui) in Thailand. It is located in the island’s Bo Phut subdistrict. The airport is roughly 2 km north of the main city and largest resort centre on the island, Chaweng. It was built by Bangkok Airways. Construction began in 1982 and the airport was officially opened in April 1989.^[1]

Samui International Airport ท่าอากาศยานสมุย
IATA: USM ICAO: VTSM
Summary
Airport type	Private
Owner/Operator	Bangkok Airways
Serves	Ko Samui
Location	Bo Phut, Ko Samui, Surat Thani, Thailand
Opened	25 April 1989; 35 years ago (1989-04-25)
Operating base for	Bangkok Airways
Elevation AMSL	64 ft / 20 m
Coordinates	09°32′52″N 100°03′44″E
Maps
USM/VTSM Location of airport in Thailand
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 17/35 6,890 2,100 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Aircraft movements 19,467 Total passengers 2,051,289

Facilities

Samui Airport has a unique, open-air design, with the indoor areas being the gift shop, ticket office, toilets, and VIP lounge area. It is also the country's seventh-busiest airport, handling more than a million passengers annually. The airport has terminals (domestic and international), plus a building for check-in and baggage claim. The international terminal is about 50 metres north of the domestic terminal. Samui Airport is near the Big Buddha Pier, where ferries depart for Ko Pha-ngan. High-speed ferries to Ko Tao and Chumphon depart from the Maenam Beach Pier, approximately 6 km northwest of the airport.

• 
  Domestic departure entrance
• 
  Waiting area of the domestic terminal
• 
  Open-space waiting area of the domestic terminal
• 
  Boarding gate of the domestic terminal
• 
  Airside of the arrival terminal

Airlines and destinations

Since the airport is privately owned by Bangkok Airways, it has a near-monopoly on flights.^[2] Between 2008 and 2018, Thai Airways International also operated two daily flights from Bangkok.^[2] Scoot has also started a Singapore-Koh Samui route operated by the Embraer E190 jet starting from 13 May 2024.

Airlines	Destinations
Bangkok Airways	Bangkok–Don Mueang,[3] Bangkok–Suvarnabhumi, Chengdu–Tianfu, Chiang Mai, Hong Kong,[4] Krabi, Pattaya, Phuket, Singapore[5]
Scoot	Singapore[6]
Tibet Airlines	Xi'an[7]

Statistics

Year	Flights	Arriving passengers	Departing passengers	Total passengers
2005[8]	15,818	584,023	621,313	1,205,336
2006[9]	18,762	689,063	711,196	1,400,259
2007[10]	15,783	577,600	611,554	1,189,154
2008[11]	17,707	673,851	691,283	1,365,439
2015[12]		1,024,373
2019	14,325			1,208,882
Source: Thailand's Department of Civil Aviation & C9 Hotel Works

Accidents and incidents

• On 21 November 1990, Bangkok Airways Flight 125, a Bombardier Dash 8, crashed while attempting to land in heavy rain and high winds. All 38 people on board were killed.^[13][14]
• On 4 August 2009, Bangkok Airways Flight 266, an ATR 72 arriving from Krabi skidded off the runway, killing a captain.^[15]

References

1. "Thai Airways to end Bkk-Samui flights". The Nation. Bangkok. 2 June 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
2. "Bangkok-Samui: Southeast Asia's largest monopoly air route".
3. "Bangkok Airways Adds Bangkok Don Mueang Service in NW23". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
4. "Bangkok Airways resumes Koh Samui – Hong Kong service from July 2023". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
5. Megha Paul (26 July 2021). "Bangkok Airways to resume first international flight on Samui – Singapore route from 1 Aug". Travel Daily.
6. Tay Peck Gek (5 March 2024). "Scoot adds Koh Samui and Sibu to network with new Embraer planes". The Business Times. SPH Media Limited.
7. "Tibet Airlines Resumes Xi'An – Koh Samui Service From August 2024". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
8. "Samui Airport 2005 Statistics". Thai Department of Civil Aviation. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012.
9. "Samui Airport 2006 Statistics". Thai Department of Civil Aviation. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012.
10. "Samui Airport 2007 Statistics". Thai Department of Civil Aviation. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012.
11. "Samui Airport 2008 Statistics" (PDF). Thai Department of Civil Aviation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2011.
12. "Samui Airport 2015 Statistics" (PDF). C9 Hotel Works.
13. "ACCIDENT DETAILS". Plane Crash Info. Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
14. Accident description for HS-SKI at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 2017-11-03.
15. "Fatalities reported as Bangkok Airways ATR 72–500 skids off runway". Flight Global. Retrieved 4 August 2009.

External links

• Ko Samui travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Samui Airport (bangkokair.com)
• Official website