Hat Yai construction and transport report – 2025 edition

Hat Yai in Songkhla province is the largest city in southern Thailand, with an urban population of over 400,000 people. Hat Yai is the business and transport hub of the south, with international rail connections to Malaysia and an international airport.

Hat Yai has the unusual distinction of being the largest city in the province while not being the capital. Like most provinces of Thailand, the capital city of Songkhla has the same name as the province.

I arrived in Hat Yai via a flight from Chiang Mai (the longest domestic flight in Thailand), and then got a train to Penang. Rather than going straight away, I stayed two nights.

For this trip, I wanted to explore Hat Yai and see if it could become a more dynamic city in the south. One thing that concerns me about Thailand is how dominant Bangkok is compared to the rest of the country.

Bangkok is what is known as a primate city, and Bangkok is one of the most primate cities in the world. Bangkok is nearly nine times larger than the second-largest city of Chiang Mai.

Not that Chiang Mai should aspire to be even half the size of Bangkok, but Thailand should pick, say, five cities and develop them into international hubs. Hat Yai should be the international anchor city for the south of Thailand. Make Hat Yai a thriving metropolis that people want to fly to first, without even considering a visit to Bangkok. Currently, there are only two international flights to Hat Yai (no prizes for guessing they are Kuala Lumpur and Singapore). Hat Yai needs to become a great international city with flights from around the region.

This is a topic for another article, but before I write it, I visited Hat Yai to see its current development plans.

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