Domestic Air Travel

[robinko]

Hi I want to know how easy it is to travel domestically by air.

Basically I am going to be staying in Koh Chang in the east of Thailand for a week and am then going to want to travel to Phuket or Krabi in the west - preferably quickly and painlessly. I know there is an airport in Trad near to Koh Chang and that it's possible to fly from there to Bangkok.

How possible is to just turn up at the airport and buy a ticket? Or does it have to be bought in advance? Does anyone know of any web resource for finding out flight details / prices / booking tickets?

Is there any way to go directly from the east of Thailand to the West - boat or air - that cuts out having to go through Bangkok?

Any information would be very gratefully received

[eek]

biggest budget airline is airasia (www.airasia.com)

then you have nokair (www.nokair.com), one2go airlines (www.fly12go.com)

More expensive are Thai airways.

Im sure others will have a bigger list for you, but these are the most popular. Tickets can be bought online via credit card. Nice and easy. But i think you need one day in advance. Maybe not for airasia tho.

Edit: ps, good idea to just look up the airport your interested in also, as most have details of which airlines service them.

Edited September 15, 2007 by eek

[batami]

Thailand has an excellent domestic network served by no less than (I think) seven airlines - Thai, Bangkok, Nok, Air Asia, On 2 Go, Siam Reap (I think), and a little airline out of CM and Hua Hin whose name I cannot remember but their logo is "senic flights to charming palces" and that says it all.

there are literally tems (if not hundreds) of little "travel agents" or ticketing shops who will book for you for 20 ThB or so. You can book on line or on the phone and pay at 7-11 (better to have a Thai speaker if yu can but not essential). Note if you try to book on lline with Nok in Thialand, I am pretty sure they do not accept international credit cards - others can confirm / deny - so you need to ring the call center

Most of the time turn up and buy is possible - but definitely not at (Thai) holiday times and sometimes at weekends, so best to book. If I remember correctly Trad flies into Don Muang - and flights to Phuket leave from there too.

You could, of course, make life interesting and travel by bus to BKK (I hear the laughter echoing in the virtual corridors now), arriving at Ekami - it will be cheap and, by the time you have go to the airport, checked in, waiting around, etc etc, probably not much longer to get to center of BKK (are you planning to overnight on the way through?) - others who will know the route better may tell me I am barking mad but give it a thought !

Good luck, relax - its realtively easy to travel...... compared to ... ummmm (joking) ... it's not bad