Don Mueang is one of the oldest working airports in the world. It was first set up in 1914 as a Royal Thai Air Force base, on flat land just north of Bangkok. Commercial flights began the next decade, and by the 1930s it was Siam's main gateway to the outside world. It grew through the jet age into one of Asia's leading air travel hubs.
The airport became home base to Thai Airways International and welcomed many generations of travelers heading to Southeast Asia. During the long Vietnam War, it also hosted a major American air presence alongside its own civilian flights. Don Mueang closed to most airline traffic in September 2006, when Suvarnabhumi finally opened east of the city after decades of planning and heated public debate.
Within months, crowding at the new airport pushed some domestic flights back to Don Mueang. From 2012 it was reborn as Bangkok's budget airport, home to Thai AirAsia, Thai Lion Air, Nok Air, and Thai Vietjet. By the late 2010s it handled around 40 million passengers a year and was often called the largest low cost airport in the world. The air force still flies from the same field today.