Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport

Updated 29th Aug 2026

Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport (NST) is run by Thailand's Department of Airports, a government department, and not by Airports of Thailand. It sits at Pak Phun, about 14 kilometres from the city centre. Its passenger terminal is new: the building in use opened in December 2023 and replaced one a quarter of its size.

The terminal that opened in December 2023

The new passenger building covers about 30,000 square metres and has eight gates, against a design capacity of four million passengers a year. TTG Asia reported in November 2023 that the grand opening was set for the following month. Nation Thailand described the terminal as recently unveiled in July 2024.

The Department of Airports confirms the new building is the one in use. Its facilities listing for the airport puts a lounge on the second floor of the new passenger terminal.

The figure of 7,985 square metres, which still appears in listings and reference works, describes the superseded building. The airport you arrive at is the 2023 one.

What the international terminal does and does not mean

The terminal was designed and reported as an international one, and the province has said it wants scheduled services from Singapore, China, Taiwan and Malaysia. Published route data for the airport, however, lists only two non-stop destinations, both of them Bangkok, and states that no international flights currently depart from here.

A business-aviation handbook also lists neither customs nor immigration at the field, though that directory carries no revision date and may describe the airport as it stood before the rebuild.

If you are arriving from outside Thailand, plan on clearing immigration in Bangkok and connecting from there. Where the two legs are booked separately, leave more time between them than a single ticket would need.

Where Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport is, and how to contact it

The airport's address is 598 Moo 1, Pak Phun subdistrict, Mueang district, Nakhon Si Thammarat 80000. The switchboard runs from 075-450541 to 075-450549, with public relations on 075-450545 and a fax on 075-450-549. The email address is nakorn@airports.go.th, and the airport also posts on Facebook as nst.airport.

Which airlines fly to Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport

Nok Air, Thai Lion Air and Thai AirAsia fly here from Don Mueang, and Thai Vietjet Air from Suvarnabhumi. A listing naming Don Mueang alone is missing the Suvarnabhumi service.

Thai AirAsia also holds a Suvarnabhumi route here, and it is suspended. The airline pulled it from 1 May to 30 June 2026, reducing the Don Mueang service over the same weeks, then suspended its whole Suvarnabhumi domestic operation from 15 July and moved those flights to Don Mueang. It gave 1 October 2026 as the return date and put both rounds down to higher jet fuel costs and weaker mid-year demand.

Which Bangkok airport your Nakhon Si Thammarat flight uses

Bangkok has two airports, and which one you want depends on the airline you booked rather than on the city name. The three-letter code on the ticket settles it: DMK is Don Mueang and BKK is Suvarnabhumi. They are separate airports with the city between them, so check the code before you book anything that connects.

Getting into the city

The Department of Airports lists a public vehicle service among the airport's facilities. A shuttle bus service to the city started in 2019 and, as launched, ran two routes: one to the bus terminal on Karom Road and one to Na Luang by way of the hospitals and the Robinson Ocean centre, on air-conditioned buses with space for large luggage.

Those details are the ones published when the service launched, so check the bus on arrival before building a connection around it. A third-party airport guide places the taxi and car-hire counters near the arrivals exit, on the left.

Flooding, and what it does to flights here

Nakhon Si Thammarat gets heavy monsoon rain, and the airport has closed for flooding before. In November 2025 it kept operating through a wet spell, but passengers were told to allow at least two extra hours to reach it, with the Thai Meteorological Department warning of flash floods and river overflows across seven southern provinces.

The airport's own advice that week was to contact the airline directly if a flight time changed. Weather of that kind is the case for leaving slack in a same-day connection.

What the government has planned for the airport

In August 2026 Nakhon Si Thammarat was named one of six regional airports singled out for upgrade, alongside Surat Thani, Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Krabi. The work named covers terminal capacity, safety installations, airspace and traffic management, a specialised flight information service, and faster approval of new routes.

The same reporting put each of the six at between 2,500 and 5,000 passengers a day during 2025. Published figures give this airport 1,040,791 passengers across 2024.

Nakhon Si Thammarat routes with schedules on this site

This site holds schedule pages for the Bangkok route in both directions: Nakhon Si Thammarat to Bangkok and Bangkok to Nakhon Si Thammarat. The province itself, including the beaches at Khanom and Sichon, is covered in the Nakhon Si Thammarat destination guide.