A distancia
De acordo com o Google Maps, a distância de Bangkok a U-Tapao é superior a 170 quilômetros por estrada, como mostra a imagem abaixo. A distância direta, como apontado em uma declaração de Eva Air (na citação abaixo, em negrito) é cerca de quilômetros 140.
O futuro
Existem planos para Aeroporto U-tapao Rayong-Pattaya para se tornar o terceiro aeroporto de Bangkok. De acordo com The Blue Swan Daily:
The Royal Thai Navy, operator of Utapao Rayong-Pattaya International airport, recently unsealed tender bids for the USD9 billion redevelopment of the facility under the Thai Government’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) scheme.
Seu resumo do artigo lista:
Utapao will ultimately take its place as a ‘Bangkok’ airport, but one dedicated to tourists as it serves nearby Pattaya.
O passado
Não é totalmente sem precedentes que os vôos para Bangkok sigam para U-Tapao. No 2008, quando ambos os principais aeroportos de Bangcoc foram fechados, algumas companhias aéreas optaram por direcionar seu voo para lá. De captura de web.archive.org do site da Eva Air (a ênfase é minha):
Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok is still closed, so EVA Air changes flight schedule to Bangkok and Europe. EVA Air temporarily take Utapao Airport for the operation for flights to and from and via Bangkok.
Utapao is located approximately 140 kilometres and south from Bangkok. However, facilities at Utapao are very basic and the airport is heavily congested, we apologise in advance for the inconvenience, but ask for your understanding that the airport at Utapao is originally designed for military purpose.
Não foi apenas a Eva Air que decidiu mudar seus vôos; por algum tempo, foi o principal aeroporto da Tailândia. De Wikipedia:
With the temporary closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport and Don Mueang Airport in late November 2008 because they had been occupied by anti-government protestors, U-Tapao became for a time Thailand's main supplementary international gateway. Many airlines arranged special flights to and from U-Tapao to ferry international passengers stranded by the closure of the Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Como você pode imaginar, isso causou alguns problemas (desde o mesmo link da Wikipedia):
As many as 100,000 passengers were stranded in Thailand until early December. Although its runway can accommodate large aircraft, U-Tapao's terminals are not designed to handle more than a few flights a day. Travellers were subject to many hardships, and as the security was not up-to-date, some US-bound flights were diverted to Japan and their passengers required to go through a supplementary security check before continuing.