Chiang Mai International Airport

Chiang Mai International Airport is the principal airport of northern Thailand and the fourth-busiest airport in the country after Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, and Phuket, handling roughly 10 million passengers annually in pre-pandemic normal years. CNX is the primary gateway to the historical Lanna Kingdom region — Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, Lamphun, Mae Hong Son — and functions as Thailand's main aviation hub outside the Bangkok and southern beach destination clusters. The airport is notable in the regional Southeast Asian network for handling a mix of high-volume tourism traffic, substantial domestic connecting traffic, and international point-to-point flights to the large Chinese outbound market. CNX is a focus city for Thai AirAsia, Nok Air, and Thai VietJet, with domestic trunk service to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, plus flights to Phuket, Krabi, Hat Yai, and Udon Thani. International service concentrates on Chinese cities (Kunming, Chongqing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen), plus Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Yangon. Thai Airways, Bangkok Airways, and a rotating cast of Chinese low-cost carriers (Lucky Air, 9 Air, Spring, West Air) round out the network. A single runway, 18/36, measures 10,171 ft (3,100 m) and accommodates widebody operations including 787 and A330 equipment. Two passenger terminals — a larger Terminal 1 for both domestic and international, plus a smaller auxiliary — share a common landside area. CNX sits 4 km (2.5 mi) southwest of Chiang Mai Old City at an elevation of 1,036 ft (316 m) in the fertile valley of the Ping River, surrounded by the Doi Suthep mountain range. The airport's proximity to the city — walking distance from some parts of the Old City wall — is unusually close for an airport of its passenger volume.