Chiang Mai Airport

Surprised to learn how small Chiang Mai airport is and yet hosts many large aircraft each day (Thai A300-600 and Orient Thai B747-200). My overall impression of the airport was okay. The TG Biz/First Class Lounge was adequate had a good number of food items (better than many lounges at larger airports I've visited - namely DTW and NRT). But no alcohol (just like TG flights even in premium cabin). Too bad there is no bus transit service to town (though the flat rate of $100 baht for cab fare is not so bad).

I come from Chiang Mai. So I use this airport to get out of the city pretty regularly. The airport is quite small but it has all the the modern equipments that other international airports have. It can be crowded with passengers all day long which makes it so lively to remind you to get there early for your flight. The airport is on its way for expansion. There is some improvement on the runway and I believe the internal terminal has been upgraded to take more passengers too. I heard that in the near future there will be some inter-continental flights come to CNX regularly too. I like this idea because I can skip the overnight stay in BKK when I got to Thailand from America or Australia.

It's quite small old facility and stuffed with many amenities - post office bank duty-free souvenir shops snack bars transportation/hotel kiosk and even massage chairs. But there is not much room there. Baggage claim area can be very hard to maneuver for Airbus 300 passenger load. Interior decoration is heavy with Thai hand crafts. It's only 15-min ride from city center.