CNX Airport early 2025

[sqwakvfr]

1 . CNX is a single runway airport.  RWY 36-18  is 11,000 but the actual usable portion is less.

2.  The terminal and gate areas are very crowded.  I took an international flgiht in Jan and Feb 2025.  

3.  The combination of domestic flights and now growing number of international flights has me concerned.

4.  Have been a commercially rated pilot for 20 years but I have never worked for an airline.  But I do have a good understanding of the limits of busy single runway airports.

5.  Here are some of the international flight that land and depart from CNX:

      Asiana, to Incheon, Air China to PEK, Cebu Pacfic to Manila, China Airlines to Taipei, China Eastern and Southern to the ROC, Easter Jet to S. Korea,

      EVA to Taipei, HK Express to Hong Kong, Jeju Air (still flying for now) jin Air-Incheon, Korean to Incheon, Scoot to SIN, Starlux to Taipei

       Viet Jet to Oasaka and lastly Air Asia to KL(2x a day). 

 

       This list is not compete and even Eithiad has plans to start service in late 2025.

 

These are a lot of international flight for CNX and some of these carriers do not fly everyday.

 

Here are my main concerns:

 

1. One runway incident will knock the airport out of commission. The nearest alternative airport that can handle the traffic is probably 

     BKK or DMK.  That is a long away to get back to Chiang Mai via car, bus or train. 

2.  All airport runways need to be inspected and maintained on a regular basis. This means the runway has to be closed.  Inspection and 

      maintanence should be conducted during the day.  I have never heard of this airport being closed for inspection and maintanence.

 

I believe CNX airport is at or beyond capacity for safe operations.  The time to build a new airport is anywhere from 3 to 5 years from start to finish.  Everytime an

airplane lands small amounts of rubber from the tires are left on the surface.  This rubber has to be removed to ensure safe landings. This can take hours to complete.

If there is availabe land a faster solution would be build a second shorter runway that is parallel to RWY 36 to 18.  

 

[bkk6060]

They must be doing something right I fly in and out of there 2 times a month.  Rarely a delayed flight or long wait on the runway.

They talked about Lamphun, but doubt that will happen.

If a person is worried, then the train Is an option. 

 

[Nick Carter icp]

1 hour ago, sqwakvfr said:

The nearest alternative airport that can handle the traffic is probably 

     BKK or DMK.  That is a long away to get back to Chiang Mai via car, bus or train. 

 

   What about Chiang Rai airport ?

[sqwakvfr]

5 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   What about Chiang Rai airport ?

Possible but Korean Air flies an A330-300.  This aircraft could be a challenge but is their an Immigration unit that can handle international arrivals?

[sqwakvfr]

1 hour ago, bkk6060 said:

They must be doing something right I fly in and out of there 2 times a month.  Rarely a delayed flight or long wait on the runway.

They talked about Lamphun, but doubt that will happen.

If a person is worried, then the train Is an option. 

 

Everything is ok until somethings happens.   Train to Busan?  

[CMBob]

1 hour ago, sqwakvfr said:

 

.....I have never heard of this airport being closed for inspection and maintanence.

 

....Everytime an

airplane lands small amounts of rubber from the tires are left on the surface.  This rubber has to be removed to ensure safe landings. This can take hours to complete.

 

Apparently airport officials don't have you on their list to notify of inspection or maintenance procedures. Pure speculation on your part..

 

Having flown from a raft of major airports in the US (and other countries), to this day I've never seen one of those airports close a runway during the daytime to remove, as you say, "small amounts of rubber." 

 

The last serious accident at CNX was, I believe, in 1967, and the accident occurred here but wasn't related at all to airport safety.  I see no reason to have any significant safety concerns regarding CNX. 

[brommers]

CNX ought to be able to handle way more aircraft movements. Gatwick in the UK handles at least 3 times as many take-offs and landings per day, is closed for part of the night (unlike CNX) and is a single runway operation. So correct investment in equipment and staff can handle far more traffic than now but the terminals are unable to handle much more throughput so the planned rebuilding is crucial.  

[sqwakvfr]

14 hours ago, CMBob said:

Apparently airport officials don't have you on their list to notify of inspection or maintenance procedures. Pure speculation on your part..

 

Having flown from a raft of major airports in the US (and other countries), to this day I've never seen one of those airports close a runway during the daytime to remove, as you say, "small amounts of rubber." 

 

The last serious accident at CNX was, I believe, in 1967, and the accident occurred here but wasn't related at all to airport safety.  I see no reason to have any significant safety concerns regarding CNX. 

LAX has 4 runways and the 24R is where most of the international flights land and on a regular basis the runway is closed for inspection and maintenance. Several times a day Airport Ops personnel will drive down the runways to conduct a FOD check. FOD stands for Foreign Object Debris. 

[CMBob]

37 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

LAX has 4 runways and the 24R is where most of the international flights land and on a regular basis the runway is closed for inspection and maintenance. Several times a day Airport Ops personnel will drive down the runways to conduct a FOD check. FOD stands for Foreign Object Debris. 

You have suggested that CNX is unsafe and also are suggesting that CNX does not comply with the ICAO requirement of a daily daylight inspection of runways for foreign objects. Perhaps you could share with us how you know (if you do) that CNX doesn't comply with that standard. 

[newbee2022]

17 hours ago, sqwakvfr said:

BKK or DMK.  That is a long away to get back to Chiang Mai via car, bus or train. 

You forgot Chiang Rai 🤗

[nomad22]

7 hours ago, brommers said:

Gatwick in the UK handles at least 3 times as many take-offs and landings per day, is closed for part of the night (unlike CNX) and is a single runway operation.

 

But Gatwick has 2 runways.  They are too close together to use simultaneously, but the second runway is there in case of an emergency or maintenance on the other runway.  You completely missed the OP's point that Chiang Mai has no backup runway.

[triplez]

7 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

You forgot Chiang Rai 🤗

currently there are no international scheduled flights in Chiang Rai, so no Immigration & Customs standing by. Not a good idea to divert there in case CNX is closed. 

[newbee2022]

25 minutes ago, triplez said:

currently there are no international scheduled flights in Chiang Rai, so no Immigration & Customs standing by. Not a good idea to divert there in case CNX is closed. 

Easy to change

[novacova]

On 2/7/2025 at 6:55 PM, sqwakvfr said:

Here are my main concerns:

Rest assured that taking a flight in and out of cnx is much safer than the drive down mahidol to the airport 

[sqwakvfr]

33 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

Easy to change

"easier said then done".  If an interational flight was to divert to Chiang Rai the passengers might be waiting onboard for hours.  This type of diversion has occurred in other parts of the world and at best passengers are locked into a secure area or are left on the plane on the tarmac while airport operations makes arrangementd. I doubt it would be "easy".  

[sqwakvfr]

9 hours ago, CMBob said:

You have suggested that CNX is unsafe and also are suggesting that CNX does not comply with the ICAO requirement of a daily daylight inspection of runways for foreign objects. Perhaps you could share with us how you know (if you do) that CNX doesn't comply with that standard. 

I did not sugggest CNX was unsafe or does not comply with ICAO requiements. The concept is called "contingency planning".  For those involved in aviation (pilots, ATCa and airport operations) we live on "Murphy's Law".  You know "if it can wrong, it will".  I have been part of aviation as a pilot who has been in and out of small and big airports for years.  In aviation the margin of error is slim so knowing the proper response to a contingency before it occurs is SOP.  

[Lacessit]

On 2/7/2025 at 6:55 PM, sqwakvfr said:

1 . CNX is a single runway airport.  RWY 36-18  is 11,000 but the actual usable portion is less.

2.  The terminal and gate areas are very crowded.  I took an international flgiht in Jan and Feb 2025.  

3.  The combination of domestic flights and now growing number of international flights has me concerned.

4.  Have been a commercially rated pilot for 20 years but I have never worked for an airline.  But I do have a good understanding of the limits of busy single runway airports.

5.  Here are some of the international flight that land and depart from CNX:

      Asiana, to Incheon, Air China to PEK, Cebu Pacfic to Manila, China Airlines to Taipei, China Eastern and Southern to the ROC, Easter Jet to S. Korea,

      EVA to Taipei, HK Express to Hong Kong, Jeju Air (still flying for now) jin Air-Incheon, Korean to Incheon, Scoot to SIN, Starlux to Taipei

       Viet Jet to Oasaka and lastly Air Asia to KL(2x a day). 

 

       This list is not compete and even Eithiad has plans to start service in late 2025.

 

These are a lot of international flight for CNX and some of these carriers do not fly everyday.

 

Here are my main concerns:

 

1. One runway incident will knock the airport out of commission. The nearest alternative airport that can handle the traffic is probably 

     BKK or DMK.  That is a long away to get back to Chiang Mai via car, bus or train. 

2.  All airport runways need to be inspected and maintained on a regular basis. This means the runway has to be closed.  Inspection and 

      maintanence should be conducted during the day.  I have never heard of this airport being closed for inspection and maintanence.

 

I believe CNX airport is at or beyond capacity for safe operations.  The time to build a new airport is anywhere from 3 to 5 years from start to finish.  Everytime an

airplane lands small amounts of rubber from the tires are left on the surface.  This rubber has to be removed to ensure safe landings. This can take hours to complete.

If there is availabe land a faster solution would be build a second shorter runway that is parallel to RWY 36 to 18.  

 

Is Chiang Rai a viable alternative? Granted it would need an Immigration centre, I am thinking is the runway sufficient to land the same planes as CM.

[sqwakvfr]

4 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Is Chiang Rai a viable alternative? Granted it would need an Immigration centre, I am thinking is the runway sufficient to land the same planes as CM.

Korean Air's A330-300 fully loaded could be a challenge. I flew out on Korean Air flight KE 668 last week from CNX. It was fully loaded and needed a lot of RWY 36 to get airborne.  The same goes on landing if an aircraft of this size is fully loaded unless it has burned up most of it's fuel.  

[GammaGlobulin]

On 2/7/2025 at 8:14 PM, sqwakvfr said:

Possible but Korean Air flies an A330-300.  This aircraft could be a challenge but is their an Immigration unit that can handle international arrivals?

That is the NOISIEST plane flying.

Shakes the windows.

No noise abatement procedures on takeoff, seemingly.

They should stop flying this plane out of here.

 

[sqwakvfr]

1 hour ago, GammaGlobulin said:

That is the NOISIEST plane flying.

Shakes the windows.

No noise abatement procedures on takeoff, seemingly.

They should stop flying this plane out of here.

 

I think KAL is usiing what is left over for the CNX route.  Most of the newer aircraft are flying elsewhere. Doubt they would use a B777 or B787 for the ICN to CNX route?