Krabi's airport has a turbulent history. It first opened back in 1986 a
joint venture between the town's private & public sectors. The air service was
operated by an 18 setae aircraft and with such limited capacity was not successful.
Clearly Crab needed a much larger airport and work on the new one by the Department of
Aviation started in 1993. And was finally opened on 10 July 1999 by The Prime Minister, He
Chuan Leukepai.
The terminal building is grafted onto the side of a cliff with passengers arriving on the
ground floor to re-claim their bags and then having to take an escalator to the first
floor to leave the building. Apart from passenger and baggage handling the terminal
building has limited services. The
restaurant, to be managed by a yet to be announced local company is due to open in the
next month. In the event of a delay of more than three hours passengers would be taken to
a nearby hotel for a meal. There is no where yet open to buy a drink, a snack, a newspaper
or a magazine.
Although
Thai Airways operate their flight with both business and economy class, there is no
dedicated check-in for Royal Executive Class passengers, nor the exclusive lounge for them
to wait in. It could be said that the airport opened before it was ready but the basics
are there, flight land and take-of to schedule and the niceties can follow later.
Thai Airways International was the first airline to operate a commercial from Bangkok on
11th July. Their flight a Boeing 737-400 with 12-business class and 137 economy class will
operate three times a week on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. TG 249will depart Bangkok
10.15am arriving into Krabi at 11.35 am and TG250 will depart for Bangkok at 12.10 pm
arriving at 13.30 pm.
PB
Air operated their first commercial service on 14th July with PB86 departing Bangkok on a
German Fairchild Dornier 328 at 1530 arriving into Krabi at 17.10 am with PB87 leaving for
Bangkok at 1740 pm arriving at 19.20 pm.
Now the sky is the limit for Krabi.
Flight
Schedule Krabi Airport
30 October 2005-25 March 2006 |
