Don Meuang Airport (DMK) in Bangkok (fig.) initially opened as a Royal Thai Air Force base and operations officially started on 8 March 1914, making it Asia's oldest operating airport, whilst commercial flights reportedly began in 1924.

DMK was built as an alternate for the Sanam Bin Sra Pathum airstrip (fig.) at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club's (fig.) in Pathumwan District.

Of the latter, the central grass field of the horse racetrack doubled as a makeshift airfield ever since the Belgian pilot Charles Van den Born (fig.) in 1911 used it for a flight demonstration with his airplane Henri Farman (fig.), thus introducing aviation to Thailand by carrying out the first powered flight in the Kingdom. DMK remained Thailand's main airport with both an international and domestic terminal, until the opening of Suwannaphum Airport (fig.) in September 2006. Though commercial carriers initially discarded DMK, some of them later returned, due to overcapacity and higher operating costs at the new airport. Today it handles mainly low-cost domestic flights, cargo and some chartered flights.