Back in 2007 Nok Air began daily flights between Ubon and Bangkok. Unfortunately it only lasted 6 months. Nok Air is affiliated with Thai airways which is one of the two current airlines to service Ubon, the other being Air Asia. It seems that Thai airways is looking to offload a few of their domestic routes in Thailand that they cannot operate profitably under the full-service model with one of them being Ubon Ratchathani.
This can only be a good thing for Ubon as the flight to Bangkok only takes one hour so I doubt many people would have an issue if they don’t get a wet towel and the daily paper upon arriving at their pre booked seat.
Buriram is a small city about two hours from here and it seems as if Nok Air has big plans for the place.
The full article from the Bangkok Post can be found here.
From what I understand is that Nok Air is taking over routes that were serviced by PB Air. PB is in some kind of trouble.
Nok Air sent me an email two days ago stating that their routes in Northeast Thailand would be Buriram, Nakhon Panom and Sakhon Nakhon. No mention of Ubon Ratchathani on the intinerary.
I was at THAI yesterday morning in Ubon and they also confirmed the three above routes, with no mention of Ubon. I would have thought that Ubon was quite profitable as the planes are always full whenever I travel. All three daily flights are fully booked over the New Year period.
Nok only fly from Don Mueang. So if Nok do come to Ubon it will be back to the old days of having to transist across the city from Don Mueang to Suvannaphum.
I for one prefer that Nok do not come and THAI remain.
Hi Michael, I forgot all about them using Don Muang airport which would be a real pain for sure. I also agree with you about the flights being booked – there certainly isn’t a problem with Thai airways having empty seats coming into Ubon so maybe it is all a big furphy!
I so wish that there were international flights again from Ubon. Ubon to Vientiane would be awesome!
Speaking of Airlines flying into Ubon.
Back in 1996 my family and I flew on Orient Air from Ubon to Chiang Mai with a 20 minute touch down in Udorn. Wonderful flight. But unfortunately the route wasn’t popular and so was canned. A pity. So to get to Chiang Mai one must either drive, go by bus for 14 hours or fly to Bangkok and then up to Chiang Mai.
Cross country air services are almost non-existent in Thailand. A few years ago PB Air flew Roi -et to Chiang Mai. One drove from Ubon to Roi-Et (2 hours), parked the car and then flew to Chiang Mai.
Then there was the INTERNATIONAL flight Ubon to Da Nang, Vietnam. Lasted about a year.
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