Chiang Rai Airport

Updated 28th Aug 2026

Chiang Rai Airport (CEI) is run by Airports of Thailand (AOT), and is one of six airports the company operates, alongside Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Hat Yai. AOT describes its role as a regional centre for aviation-related business, serving the Mekong River Basin countries as well as southern China, and as part of bringing tourists to northern Thailand.

Where Chiang Rai Airport is, and when it is open

The address on AOT's own page for the airport is 404, Moo 10, Mueang District, Chiang Rai Province. The terminal's service hours are 06:00 to 22:00. The airport information centre has a 24-hour telephone number, (+66) 5379 8999.

The site covers 3,042 rai. There is one runway and one passenger terminal building of roughly 16,488 square metres, with seven aircraft parking bays. Three of the seven are at jet bridges and the other four are remote.

How do I get from Chiang Rai Airport into the city?

Taxi and limousine services at the airport work the same hours as the terminal, 06:00 to 22:00. App-based ride-hailing picks up and drops off at Passenger Terminal Door 1, and the car rental counters are on the first floor.

The public shuttle bus between the airport and the city centre stopped running in August 2024, as Chiang Rai Times set out in August 2026. The 2026 accounts of that closure give taxis, app-based ride-hailing and pre-booked private transfers as what is left. Directions written before the closure are still in circulation.

Twelve parking spaces are reserved for drivers with disabilities, six on the north side of the terminal and six on the south.

The planned new terminal

A first phase for Chiang Rai would build a new passenger terminal, renovate the existing one, add a car park building and upgrade roads, utilities and related systems. Coverage from August 2025 also describes a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility planned on part of the site.

Timing is where the accounts part. Nation Thailand reported in May 2026 that the plan was at the design stage with approval sought by 2027, while coverage from August 2025 put completion in 2032. Both accounts give the expansion a target capacity of roughly 6 million passengers a year, one as a doubling to at least that and the other as up to it. The August 2025 coverage separately gives a target of 7 million passengers within seven years.

Published figures for the airport's current capacity do not agree with each other. The August 2025 coverage puts it at about 1.9 million passengers a year, and the May 2026 report puts it at 3 million. Both are describing capacity ahead of the same expansion.

Flying to and from Chiang Rai Airport

AOT's special-assistance page for the airport gives individual contact details for four airlines: Thai Airways, Nok Air, Thai AirAsia and Thai Lion Air. That list is there for assistance enquiries, and it is not offered as a roster of every carrier serving the airport.

This site holds schedule pages for the Bangkok run in both directions, Chiang Rai to Bangkok and Bangkok to Chiang Rai. The airport's own network is larger than the pages held here.

Facilities at Chiang Rai Airport

The lounge at Chiang Rai is the Coral Executive Lounge, airside in the domestic departures area on level 1, near gates 1 and 2. It accepts Priority Pass.

A food court called The Foodie Project is on the second floor, described on the outlet's own social media page and in traveller reviews. A prayer room and a first-aid room appear in third-party listings of the airport's facilities.