Thailand Airports: BKK vs DMK and Getting Into the City (2026)

Tip · Read the three-letter code on your ticket (BKK or DMK) before you book anything onward. AirAsia, Bangkok Airways and Cebu Pacific all fly from both, so the airline name alone won't tell you.

Bangkok has two international airports, and mixing them up is one of the easiest first-trip mistakes to make. Suvarnabhumi (BKK) and Don Mueang (DMK) are about 30 km apart in a straight line and closer to 50 km by road, which is anything from 45 minutes to two hours in a taxi. I've flown into both more times than I can count and I still double-check which one my flight uses before booking anything onward. The first time I got it wrong, I landed at Don Mueang at midnight expecting the Airport Rail Link, which only runs from Suvarnabhumi and would have stopped for the night anyway, and ended up in a very expensive cab with a very long wait.

AirAsia moved its Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi flights back to Suvarnabhumi on 1 October 2026, and two weeks earlier the visa-free stay was cut from 60 days to 30, so a lot of what's written about arriving in Thailand is now out of date. Below is which airline uses which airport, what to sort out before you land, and the cheapest sensible way into the city from each one, plus the airports at Phuket, Chiang Mai, Samui and Krabi.

Which Bangkok airport is your flight using?

Read the three-letter code on your booking, not the airline name. BKK is Suvarnabhumi, DMK is Don Mueang.

Thai AirAsia paused all its Suvarnabhumi flights from mid-July to the end of September 2026 and came back on 1 October with three domestic routes: Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi, with more flights added through October. Everything else it flies, including all of its international routes, still uses Don Mueang, which remains its main base. So an AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai can now leave from either airport depending on the time you pick, and the booking page only shows the difference in the airport code. Bangkok Airways and Cebu Pacific also use both.

This matters most for connections. If you land at Suvarnabhumi on a long-haul flight and your domestic flight leaves from Don Mueang, that's a road transfer across the city, not a walk to another gate. Where you can, book the domestic leg from the airport you land at. Thai Airways, Bangkok Airways, Thai VietJet, and now AirAsia to Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi all fly domestic routes from Suvarnabhumi. If you can't, the section on connecting between the two airports has the free shuttle and how much time to leave.

Before you land: arrival card, visa and customs

Everyone who isn't Thai fills in the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) online in the three days before arriving. It's free, it lives on the immigration bureau's own site at tdac.immigration.go.th, and it replaced the old paper card in May 2025. Copycat sites charge $10 to $90 for the same form, and in March 2026 immigration said at least one in ten arrivals had used one. The tourist tricks guide shows how to tell them apart. If you're only transiting and never pass through immigration, you don't need it. The immigration bureau's THIM app can also submit it for you, but it's still an optional pilot and the website works fine.

Since 15 September 2026, visitors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and most of Europe get 30 days visa-free, down from 60. You can extend it once for another 30 days at an immigration office with your passport, one 4 x 6 cm photo and 1,900 baht, and the officer decides. You can also apply and pay online at thaiextension.vfsevisa.com. It isn't a .go.th address, but it's the immigration bureau's official partner and immigration.go.th links to it. It adds a 500 baht service fee, and you still go to an immigration office to get the stamp. If you entered before 15 September, the date on your stamp still stands. For a two or three week holiday nothing changes. Anything longer now needs the extension or a proper visa, so check before you book the return flight.

Immigration can also ask for proof of funds (the Thai embassy figure is 20,000 baht per person, in cash or the equivalent) and an onward or return ticket inside your 30 days. It isn't a routine check for normal tourists, but have the return booking on your phone. There's no tourist entry fee yet. The 450 baht plan still needs cabinet approval and can't start before 2027, so if a website asks you to pay one now, close it.

Customs is short. The duty-free allowance is 200 cigarettes and one litre of alcohol. Vapes and e-cigarettes are illegal to bring in or carry, whatever you see people doing in bars, so leave them at home.

Arriving at Suvarnabhumi (BKK)

Suvarnabhumi is one large terminal plus a satellite building, SAT-1, for some international gates. If your plane parks at a gate starting with S, a driverless underground train takes you to the main terminal in about two minutes. Immigration and baggage claim are on Level 2, taxis and Grab are one floor down on Level 1, and the train into the city is in the basement.

The immigration bureau says the average wait is under 30 minutes, but when several long-haul flights land together in the afternoon it can run to an hour or more. Automatic gates are being rolled out for some passports (not the US), but only for people who've entered Thailand before on the same passport, so on a first visit you'll queue at the counters. There's no official paid fast track through immigration, and the immigration bureau warned in May 2026 about third-party sites selling one. The "Fast Track" you'll see in the AOT app is a paid meet-and-assist service run by the airport, not something immigration sells.

Before you leave the building, change some money at the SuperRich booth in the basement, next to the Airport Rail Link. It gives close to the city rate, which the counters upstairs don't (the currency guide has the rest). The SIM counters are in arrivals too, but the SIM guide explains why I'd only buy there if you need data right now. The free airport Wi-Fi gives you three hours through the SAWASDEE by AOT app, which is enough to message your hotel and book a ride.

Getting into the city from Suvarnabhumi

Airport Rail Link. The station is in the basement, and trains run from 5:30am to midnight. It's 45 baht to Phaya Thai at the end of the line, where you change to the BTS Skytrain, or get off at Makkasan and walk across to the MRT Blue Line at Phetchaburi. Since November 2025 you can tap a Visa or Mastercard contactless card at the gate instead of queuing for a token. It's been unreliable in 2026: only five or six of its nine trains were running in September, so they came every 15 to 20 minutes and the platforms got packed at rush hour. With a backpack it's still the cheapest and most predictable way in. With two large suitcases at 6pm, I'd get a Grab or a taxi.

Public taxi. Go down to Level 1 and take a ticket from the machines between Gates 4 and 7, then walk to the numbered lane printed on it. You pay the meter, plus a 50 baht airport fee, plus the expressway tolls (usually 70 to 100 baht in total, paid at the booths on the way), plus 20 baht for each oversized bag. All-in, Sukhumvit or Silom usually comes to 350 to 550 baht, and Khao San a bit more. Take a photo of the ticket, because it has the driver's details on it. If the driver quotes a flat price instead of using the meter, get out before the car moves. The tourist tricks guide covers that and the "limousine" men in the arrivals hall.

Grab. Grab also picks up from Level 1: out through Gate 4 and across to the outer kerb, where the Grab lanes are, and for a normal booking the app names your pickup point once a driver is assigned. Since September 2026 there's a quicker option: pick the Grab pickup point in the app, get a four-digit PIN, and give it to the next waiting driver in lanes A to D. Expect roughly 350 to 600 baht to the centre, plus about 75 baht in tolls. It's what I use when I land with luggage and no patience. The Grab guide has the setup.

S1 bus and the AOT limousine. The S1 bus to Khao San and Sanam Luang leaves from Gate 7 on Level 1 every 30 minutes between 6am and 8pm, costs 60 baht and takes an hour or more. The official AOT limousine counter on Level 2 runs around the clock and charges roughly 1,000 to 1,500 baht to the centre. It's legitimate, just expensive.

If your first stop isn't Bangkok. If you're heading straight to Pattaya, you don't need to go into the city at all. Buses leave from the counter at Gate 8 on Level 1 roughly every hour from 7am to 10pm, take about two hours and cost around 150 to 190 baht. You can buy a ticket at the counter. If you'd rather have a seat sorted before you fly, 12Go lists the Suvarnabhumi to Pattaya buses with times and prices; pick one at least two hours after your landing time so immigration and bags don't cost you the seat. There's a direct airport bus to Hua Hin as well, from the counter next to it.

The 12Go link is an affiliate link: if you book through it I earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Arriving at Don Mueang (DMK)

Don Mueang is the older airport, about 25 km north of the centre. Terminal 1 handles international flights and Terminal 2 domestic ones. There's no SuperRich booth here, so change a little and do the rest in town.

Getting into the city from Don Mueang

SRT Red Line. Don Mueang has had a train since 2021. The Red Line station sits right next to the airport, joined to it by a covered skywalk, so follow the signs for the SRT Red Line. It's about 33 baht and 15 to 20 minutes to Krung Thep Aphiwat, the big new central station at Bang Sue, where you change to the MRT Blue Line on a separate ticket for Chatuchak, Sukhumvit, Silom or Chinatown. Trains run from 5am to midnight, every 10 to 30 minutes. With light luggage and a hotel near an MRT station it's the cheapest way in. With big bags, two tickets and a change at a very large station is more effort than a taxi.

Airport buses. The A1 to Mo Chit BTS and Chatuchak and the A2 to Victory Monument cost 30 baht. The A3 to Pratunam and Lumpini and the A4 to Khao San cost 50. They stop outside Gate 6 on the ground floor of Terminal 1 and Gate 12 of Terminal 2, and run from early morning until about 10 or 11pm (the A1 until midnight). They're slow at rush hour but cheap.

Taxi and Grab. Public taxis leave from Gate 8 on the ground floor of Terminal 1 and next to Gate 15 in Terminal 2, with the same rules as Suvarnabhumi: the meter, a 50 baht airport fee, and the tolls on top. For Grab, the app names the pickup exit for your terminal when you book, so read the pin before you walk out. The queue at Gate 8 is the taxi rank, not the Grab point.

Landing after midnight

Both airport trains stop around midnight and the buses stop earlier, so after a late landing it's a taxi or a Grab from either airport. Both run all night. If you'd rather not deal with any of it after a long-haul flight, ask your hotel to send a car. It costs more than a taxi, but someone is waiting with your name on a sign.

Connecting between Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang

There's a free shuttle bus between the two airports for passengers with an onward flight. You show your ticket for a flight that day from the other airport, with your passport, at the stop: Gate 3 on Level 2 at Suvarnabhumi, and Gate 6 on the ground floor of Terminal 1 at Don Mueang. It runs every 30 minutes from 5am to midnight and takes about an hour, up to two in heavy traffic. A taxi between the two costs roughly 450 to 600 baht all-in and takes anything from 45 minutes to two hours.

If the two flights are on separate tickets, which is usually the case with budget airlines, the second airline owes you nothing if you miss its flight. Add it up: immigration can take an hour at a busy time, then your bags, then one to two hours on the road, and check-in for a domestic flight closes 45 minutes before departure. I wouldn't book that connection with less than four or five hours between landing and the second departure.

Flying out

Be at the airport two hours before a domestic flight and longer for an international one, especially at Don Mueang, where the check-in and security queues are the slow part. At Suvarnabhumi, if your gate number starts with S, it's in the SAT-1 building and you take the underground train after passport control. Allow an extra 20 minutes for the walk, the wait and the train.

Phuket (HKT)

Phuket's airport is at the north end of the island, 45 minutes to an hour from Patong and longer to Kata and Karon, up to 90 minutes in the late-afternoon traffic. It takes direct flights from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and the Gulf, and from Europe in winter.

The official taxi counters charge about 700 to 800 baht to Patong, including the 100 baht airport fee, and more to Kata and Karon. The cheap option is the Phuket Smart Bus: 100 baht flat, hourly from about 8am to 11:30pm, from Exit 3 of the domestic terminal, running down the west coast through Surin, Kamala, Patong, Karon, Kata and Rawai. It takes cash, QR and contactless cards. Grab is the only ride app with an official pickup point at the terminal. With Bolt or InDrive you may be sent to meet the driver outside the airport grounds. The tourist tricks guide explains why Phuket's prices run so far above Bangkok's, and the Phuket guide has where to stay instead of Patong.

Chiang Mai (CNX)

Chiang Mai's airport is small and only about 3 km from the Old City, 10 to 20 minutes by car. The flat-rate taxi counter in arrivals charges around 150 baht for a car and 200 for a bigger one, Grab has its own pickup area (about 150 to 200 baht to the Old City), and the RTC city bus runs from the airport during the day for 30 to 50 baht. Direct international flights come from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul, but not from Europe, so most people arrive via Bangkok. The Chiang Mai guide covers the rest.

Koh Samui (USM)

Samui's airport is owned and run by Bangkok Airways, and Bangkok Airways is the only airline flying Bangkok to Samui, which is why it's one of the most expensive domestic routes in Thailand: from about 2,300 baht one way and often a lot more. Scoot also flies in from Singapore. The terminal is small and open-air.

Taxis come from one official provider at fixed prices: 380 baht for a car to Chaweng or Bophut and 760 to Lamai, or 140 and 200 baht per person on the shared shuttle (rates from September 2026). Ride-app drivers can't pick up at the terminal.

The cheaper way is to fly from Don Mueang to Surat Thani on the mainland (AirAsia, Nok Air or Thai Lion Air, about 75 minutes) and buy a combined bus and ferry ticket at the airport. Lomprayah's catamaran ticket is about 850 to 950 baht and three hours to Samui, and the car ferries are cheaper and slower. It's worth the extra hours when the direct Samui fare is several times the Surat Thani one. The getting between cities guide has the ferry options.

Krabi (KBV)

Krabi's airport is 30 to 45 minutes from Ao Nang. The airport bus costs 150 baht to Ao Nang, runs roughly hourly from 6am to 8pm, and stops in Krabi Town on the way. A taxi from the arrivals counter to Ao Nang is somewhere around 600 to 1,000 baht, and the quotes vary a lot. Railay has no road at all: take the longtail from the east end of Ao Nang beach, 100 baht a person each way, which leaves once enough people are on board. The Krabi guide and Railay guide cover where to base yourself.

Before you book anything onward

Check the airport code on your ticket before you book a hotel transfer, a bus or a connecting flight. Once you're through arrivals, the SIM guide, the currency guide and the Grab guide cover the next three things you'll need, and getting between cities picks up when you leave Bangkok.