Narathiwat Airport

Updated 1st Sep 2026

Narathiwat Airport (NAW) is at Ban Thon in the Khok Khian subdistrict of Mueang Narathiwat district, about 13 km north of Narathiwat town, and the Department of Airports operates it. As of 1 September 2026 one scheduled airline flies here, Thai AirAsia, and the Bangkok end of that route is Don Mueang rather than Suvarnabhumi. The whole passenger terminal is being replaced, and on that date the new building had not opened.

Flights to Narathiwat, and which Bangkok airport

Thai AirAsia is the scheduled operator at Narathiwat, and it flies to Bangkok Don Mueang. In the Department of Airports' own flight records for 2025 it was the only airline filing scheduled domestic service here, and it was present in all twelve months of that year. Schedules for both directions are on this site: Narathiwat to Bangkok and Bangkok to Narathiwat.

Thai AirAsia's Bangkok Suvarnabhumi service to Narathiwat has been suspended since 21 April 2026, with no resumption date scheduled. Listings that still show it, English Wikipedia's destinations table among them, are out of date. A separate round of Suvarnabhumi suspensions covering 15 July to 30 September 2026 does not include Narathiwat.

Nok Air appears in the same 2025 records, but each of its Narathiwat movements that year was filed as military or as non-scheduled charter, not as scheduled service. Where Nok Air is shown as serving Narathiwat, that is the military and charter traffic rather than a scheduled service.

The new terminal

Work on the new passenger terminal started in March 2022. Figures published in 2024 give it about 12,000 square metres over two storeys, designed for 600 passengers an hour, raising the airport's capacity from 800,000 to about 1.7 million passengers a year. The work also covers escalators, baggage conveyors and aircraft boarding bridges.

The existing terminal, about 3,000 square metres, is to become airport offices and space for pilgrims travelling on the Hajj. The 2025 and 2026 pilgrim flights are reported from Hat Yai Airport.

The original completion date was 10 July 2025. Progress was given as 62.62% as of January 2026 and as about 78 to 79% in May 2026, with handover targeted for September 2026. In that May 2026 breakdown the passenger terminal itself was at 87%, the boarding bridges at 80%, the car parks at 91% and the connecting walkways at 86%.

On 2 February 2026 Thailand's Anti-Fake News Centre published a fact-check of a claim that the contractor had walked off the site, together with the Department of Airports' reply. The department gave shortages of materials and labour, a liquidity problem and flooding as the causes, said it had reserved its right to penalties and to terminate the contract, and said the contractor had confirmed it would finish the work and accepted penalties without conditions.

In May 2026 Kamonsak Leewamoh, the member of parliament for Narathiwat constituency 5, told a House committee he was worried the airport would be completed without airlines to operate flights from it. He urged the government to approach international carriers, particularly Malaysian ones, before the new terminal opens.

Anyone flying into Narathiwat late in 2026 may arrive at either building, and the completion date has already moved once.

The airport itself

The government commissioned the improvement of an existing airfield here in 1974, and the airport has one runway, 02/20, 2,500 m long and 45 m wide in asphaltic concrete. It was lengthened from 2,000 m under a project dated to 2009, so the airport could take a 250-seat aircraft such as the Airbus A300-600 on international flights. In the Department of Airports' 2025 records almost everything using the runway was an A320 variant, with 737-800s on the charter movements.

Inside, the terminal is reported to have two prayer rooms with ablution areas, separated for men and women: one on the second floor on the west side, and one in the multi-purpose building annexe.

Getting into Narathiwat

The airport is about 13 km north of Narathiwat town. Ground transport is reported as a limousine service to Narathiwat town, Tak Bai, Sungai Kolok and the Taba border crossing, with no regular minibus or songthaew. On that basis, arranging a transfer before you fly is the safer option.

The Narathiwat destination guide covers the province itself.

UK travel advice for Narathiwat province

As of 1 September 2026 the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advises against all but essential travel to Narathiwat province, along with Pattani and Yala provinces and the districts of Chana, Thepa, Na Thawi and Saba Yoi in southern Songkhla province. It gives regular attacks in the provinces on the Malaysian border as the reason, and it advises against all but essential travel on the Hat Yai to Padang Besar train line as well.

The UK government also says that travel insurance can be invalidated by travelling against FCDO advice. That is worth putting to your insurer before you book a flight here.