Airlines in Thailand
One of the best parts of Southeast Asia are the large number of discount airlines. Whereas in Canada it’s almost impossible to fly anywhere for less than several hundred dollars (though this is slowly changing), in Thailand and elsewhere in the region, flights are almost more like buses.
In Thailand thus far we’ve flown on Air Asia, Nok Air, Thai Viet Air, which are all discount airlines and very similar in terms of cost and service. Any destination that has more than one airline servicing it tends to have very cheap flights and it’s easy to book one-way fares. As an example, we flew from Chiang Rai (far north) to Bangkok (central Thailand) which is about 90 minutes for 600 baht, about USD $18. It’s literally not a stretch to say that this is about the same price as a taxi fare of a few km in Toronto. This was a particularly cheap fare and normal for flights to/from Bangkok to any of the major in-country destinations would normally be ~$30-$40 one way which is still amazingly cheap.
These prices are for no checked luggage and adding checked bags can quickly add another $10 to $20 to the cost of the flight. All of these airlines allow one carry on bag of no more than 7kg but our experience on this trip is that this is not at all enforced. We’ve routinely carried on our 45L and 55L backpacks at ~15kg+ plus smaller backpacks with all of our electronics that are themselves ~7-10kg and had no problems at all. This is different than on prior trips pre-COVID in which the discount airlines were much stricter about bag number and weight. I think they’re making a concerted effort to increase domestic tourism and so are turning a blind eye to the luggage rules. Not sure how long this will last. Most flights we’ve been on are about half to 2/3 full.
The exceptions to the very cheap flights are twofold. One, flights to towns only served by one airline are much more expensive. We frequently fly between Bangkok and Mae Sot and only Nok Air flies this route several times per week. Because it’s a monopoly route they charge over $100 per way. The other cheap flight exception are the non-discount airlines like Bangkok Air which is advertised as a boutique airline and Thai Airways which is the national airline. Both still have reasonable prices but certainly not like the main discount carriers.
Other notable changes when flying in the COVID era are no food or drinks on the flights, temperature checks at airports, and vaccine certificate checks (though as of March, these seem to be done less frequently). Interestingly in Mae Sot, upon arrival there’s an internal immigration system set up for foreigners where additional COVID document checks, fever checks, passport and visa check, and other paperwork about who is picking you up and where you’re staying needs to be completed.
We haven’t flown internationally since arriving in Thailand in November but hope too soon as the region is finally opening up to travel.