Betong New Airport Set To Boost Tourism in Southern Thailand

Betong New Airport Set To Boost Tourism in Southern Thailand

Many people mistaken Betong Thailand with Bentong in Pahang. We travelled to Betong twice and both by car. Betong is a small border town in Yala, Thailand and it borders Pengkalan Hulu Perak. Like many other Southern Thailand border towns, Betong is very popular with Malaysians many for its food, temples and scenery.

Driving from Kuala Lumpur to Betong takes around six hours so it is a long drive. There is no airport in Betong at the moment but there will be a new airport coming soon. When we were exploring Betong, we spotted the new Betong Airport and it is expected to be completed either in late 2019 or early 2020.

Why Betong’s new airport is important for tourism?

You can see the success of the flights from Kuala Lumpur to Hadyai. It is more expensive than Kuala Lumpur to Krabi and Kuala Lumpur to Phuket. An average fare for return flight to Hatyai from Kuala Lumpur can fetch at least RM 300++ and above. It is priced higher during peak season especially long weekends or school holidays.

With the upcoming Betong airport, we hope AirAsia or Malindo will fly to this new airport since they have extended the runway to support larger aircrafts.

Since there is no airport within Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, the new Betong airport will be convenient for locals to travel around the country and out of country.

We hope to travel to Betong via flight than on the road one day. Maybe in the two to three years, we shall revisit Betong?

If you have not visited Betong, you can check out all our stories at here.

Do you know that there are many Malaysians staying in Betong Thailand? Most of these Malaysians are ex-communists and they fled to this part of Thailand as they were driven away by the Malaysian and British solders many decades ago. These communists are not just mainly Chinese but also Malay, Indians and even Japanese. When the peace pact was signed in 1980s, the late Thai King offered them land and citizenship to give them a new lease of life to change for better. There are still many ex-Communists in Betong and you can also check their side of history of Communism in Malaysia.

Wilson Ng