Wattay International Airport VTE / VLVT

Laos's main international gateway, hub for Lao Airlines and Lao Skyway; the domestic-focused Lanexang Airways International (founded 2021, flying since Dec 2023, ATR 72s) also bases here, replacing the earlier hub carrier Lao Central Airlines, which ceased operations in 2014 and never resumed despite a 2015 relaunch announcement that fell through. Near-daily international service reaches Bangkok, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Kunming, Guangzhou and other Chinese points on carriers including China Southern, Sichuan Airlines, XiamenAir and 9 Air, Seoul on Korean low-cost carriers (Air Busan, Jeju Air, Jin Air, T'way Air), plus Singapore (Scoot) and Kuala Lumpur (AirAsia). Ground and terminal services are handled by L-JATS (see operator), reflecting the Japanese aid relationship that funded the terminal. LAA and DCAL publish very little public traffic data; the 2024 passenger figure here is an estimate built from press coverage of a roughly 2 million recovery in 2023 continuing into 2024 (about 1.5M international / 0.5M domestic), not an LAA-confirmed annual total. No AIP-quality source could confirm an ILS on runway 13/31 despite checking multiple aeronautical databases; available navaid data shows only VOR/NDB aids nearby, so ils is left unconfirmed rather than assumed. The Laos-China Railway's Vientiane-Boten line, on the same north-south corridor toward Kunming, has drawn some cross-border leisure and business traffic from the equivalent Wattay-Kunming air route since opening in December 2021, though air travel still dominates for time-sensitive and longer-haul connections.