Samui International Airport USM / VTSM

Privately owned and operated end-to-end by Bangkok Airways, which built and opened the field on 25 April 1989 and still runs it as the airline's single most important revenue base. Per Bangkok Airways' FY2025 results (reported by TTR Weekly, March 2026), Samui accounted for 65% of the carrier's 4.226 million total 2025 passengers (up 4% year-on-year) and 61% of its 48,856 flights (up 7%), at an 83% load factor, roughly 2.75 million Samui passengers for the year (Samui's own absolute total is not separately published; this figure is derived from the reported share). Single non-ILS runway (17/35) with a hard daily operating window (approx. 0600-2200 local) and PPR required outside it, so this is not a diversion-friendly or true H24 field. International service is limited to Bangkok Airways' own Hong Kong and Singapore routes (Scoot also flies Singapore) plus Berjaya Air's Kuala Lumpur-Subang link; everything else is domestic Thai capacity, almost entirely Bangkok Airways/PGZ metal, with Thai Airways and EVA Air appearing only as codeshare partners on the Bangkok domestic sector for onward international connections. Treat any non-Bangkok-Airways-group operator interest as needing separate slot/ground-handling confirmation given the airline's effective monopoly on the field it owns. Bangkok Airways announced a Samui Airport Improvement Project (from Q2 2026) targeting 6 million passengers per year capacity and 11 gates by 2030.