Nok Air will team up with bus companies to provide an overland connection from Udon Thani to Vientiane starting 14 March.
Restricted to just domestic services in Thailand, Nok Air will offer passengers travelling to Udon Thani, the nearest airport town to Nong Khai on the border with Laos, a bus service to the immigration checkpoint. It hopes to capture some of the visa-run traffic and attract travellers who want to visit Vientiane but need to save on the international fare.
The service will pick up passengers from the Bangkok-Udon Thani flight and transfer them to the First Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge checkpoint and then to Vientiane in Laos. It is not as seamless as it sounds.
Udon Keaw Tour provides the transfer from Udon Thani Airport to the Thai-Lao border checkpoint, in Nong Khai. Once passengers pass through the Lao checkpoint, they board a Trans Express bus to the Lao capital.
Passengers need to pay the Bt20 fee for transport to cross the Friendship Bridge and they have to carry their own baggage through the checkpoint to the Lao transit terminal.
Though the airline operates five daily flights, the eligible flight for the Fly ‘n’ Ride will depart Don Mueang Airport at 0600. Passengers should arrive in Vientiane at 1100. The actual flight is one hour, leaving four hours for the overland transfer.
On the return sector, the bus to the border will depart Vientiane at 1400. Passengers have two choices. They can depart on the 1545 or 1715 bus from Nong Khai to reach Udon Thani in time to catch the 1805 or 2045 flight. In Vientiane, the bus picks up and drops off passengers on Samsenthai Road.
To introduce the new service, Nok Air offers and all-inclusive fare of Bt3,200 while the standard fare is around Bt4,000. The service can be booked through its online channel.
When compared to a nonstop flight from Bangkok, Nok Air’s Fly ‘n’ Ride offers cost savings for budget travellers and is more convenient than Thai AirAsia that does not offer a bus service packaged into the fare.
But it is still a tiring and time consuming process for passengers. The main drawback is carrying luggage between buses. All passengers have to transfer to a bus that crosses the bridge only between the two immigration checkpoints. There is no one-stop shop for immigration. That is a myth cherished by government officials who head Mekong region tourism, but meaningless to travellers who need to queue twice with the their passports at either end of the bridge.
Thailand’s immigration is on one side of the almost 1 km long bridge and the Lao authorities on the other. Once through the passport checkpoints the passenger has to walk to the nearby terminal to board the bus bound for Vientiane.
It will exhaust all but very healthy and robust travellers, particularly during the hot season when temperatures soar to nearly 40 degrees centigrade.
There are only two airlines fly between Bangkok and Vientiane — Thai Airways International and Lao Airlines. THAI sells its online fares from Bt10,825, or Bt7,985 through its 52nd Anniversary promotion, but for travel from 1 May to 30 September. Meanwhile, Lao Airlines quotes a fare of around Bt8,000.
In addition, Nok Air will also strengthen its northeast network by adding an extra daily flight to Sakhon Nakhon up to two flights daily from one starting from 25 March.
The flights will depart from Don Mueang Airport at 0610 and 1320 and from Sakhon Nakhon at 0750 and 1520. While the present daily flight is operated by ATR, in the summer schedule the morning flight will be operated by a 150-seat B737 and the second with an ATR.
Nakhon Phanom’s capacity will be cut down to a smaller aircraft as the Boeing used for the twice daily service shifts to the busier Sakhon Nakhon route.
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