Domestic Flights Are Cheap and Almost Nobody Uses Them
Bangkok to Phuket costs more than Bangkok to London and takes eight times as long, and that one strange fact explains the whole Thai domestic aviation market.
The flight from Bangkok to Krabi was four hours and cost more than the flight from Bangkok to London, and when I pointed this out to the man at the counter he said, completely correctly, that he had no idea why either.
Nobody does. It is the most reliably strange thing about Thai transport.
Last verified 1 August 2026.
Why a domestic hop costs more than Europe
Thai domestic airfares are set by a formula based on distance flown, and the formula has no relationship to the cost of operating the flight. A short sector has a minimum fare built into it, and that minimum is the price you pay, and the minimum is set with a reference to international competition rather than domestic costs.
Which means the effective cost per kilometre on Bangkok to Krabi is enormous, and the cost per kilometre to somewhere in Europe is small, and both are entirely rational responses to a regulation that prices on distance rather than on cost.
The practical result is the only thing that matters: an eight hour flight can be cheaper than a two hour one.
Who flies it
Thai AirAsia, Nok Air, Thai Lion Air and Thai Airways for the trunk routes, and Bangkok Airways where they go, which is a smaller set of routes flown by aircraft that are noticeably nicer and priced accordingly.
Thai AirAsia and Nok Air are the workhorses of the domestic market and they cover most of the routes anybody visiting as a tourist is interested in, and both sell through their own sites with genuinely cheap base fares.
Bangkok Airways is the one to pay extra for if the route exists, because the aircraft are turboprops with more space and the check-in and boarding experience is closer to a regional airline than to a low cost carrier.
Two airports, and this matters
Suvarnabhumi has been the main gateway and handles the international traffic, and the domestic low cost operations are largely at Don Mueang, which is the old airport and is across the city.
That is a genuine thirty to sixty minute transfer between them depending on traffic, and it is a real cost that catches people who booked two separate tickets on the assumption they were in the same airport.
If you are connecting domestic to international yourself, allow for the airport change or a very long night, and understand that these are separate tickets with separate risk.
When a flight beats the bus
When the journey is over about six hours on the ground. A night bus from Bangkok to Krabi or Surat Thani is a reasonable proposition if you want to save money and you sleep well, and it is genuinely uncomfortable if you do not.
When you have a connection to make, particularly into the national parks or the islands, where a missed bus means a missed boat and a missed boat means a night somewhere you did not plan.
When you are taking children or moving a lot of luggage, and when the whole point of the leg is a specific arrival time rather than the cheapest possible fare.
And when you are going in peak season, because buses sell out on the popular routes in December and January and the flight, while absurdly priced relative to distance, is still a known quantity.
Booking, the few things that actually work
Book directly with the airline rather than through an aggregator, particularly for low cost carriers, because the fare components are identical and the airline will let you change it without a supplier in the middle.
Check the baggage allowance before you book, because the base fare on most domestic Thai carriers is for a cabin bag only and checked baggage is a meaningful addition on a short flight where the cost of a second seat is not.
Watch the airport. Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi are different airports and this is the single most common booking error in the country.
Be at the airport early for domestic, because check-in counters for low cost carriers close earlier than people expect, and the international and domestic schedules are not always helpful to each other.
And always leave a buffer at the end of your trip, because a domestic delay in Thailand is frequently weather, and a weather delay in the monsoon can be a whole day.
What it is actually like
Safe, punctual enough, and a very different experience from the regional flights most visitors arrive on. The aircraft are modern, the crews are professional, and the airports are well run.
Which is the strange part. The country has solved domestic aviation, priced it in a way that makes no sense, and runs it better than almost anywhere in Asia.
