There are various options to travel between cities in Luang Prabang. Either long distance coach or by air. Coach travel no doubt is much cheaper but the duration is a lot longer and the comfort level is questionable.
After reading several online reviews, I feel that the coaches may not be comfortable for me, whether it's the daytime coaches or the overnight sleeper ones. Also, the roads may make the journey bumpy.
So I decided to take to the air instead. There are two domestic airlines in Laos. Lao airlines and Lao Skyway. Lao airlines is the national carrier and operates both international and domestic routes. Its domestic routes uses ATR turboprops and A320 planes. Lao Skyway is the budget version and uses MA60.
Personally, I prefer jet aircraft to turboprops so I stick with Lao Airlines despite its higher prices.
There are some flights a day between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. I chose the timings which are operated by the A320 plane for both the forward and return journeys. Tickets are not cheap. It costs ~$300 for a return ticket. One thing about Lao airline ticket prices is that they are fixed and not dependent on the date of flying.
Fastforward to the day of flying.
Some airplane sightings at Luang Prabang airport:
After reading several online reviews, I feel that the coaches may not be comfortable for me, whether it's the daytime coaches or the overnight sleeper ones. Also, the roads may make the journey bumpy.
So I decided to take to the air instead. There are two domestic airlines in Laos. Lao airlines and Lao Skyway. Lao airlines is the national carrier and operates both international and domestic routes. Its domestic routes uses ATR turboprops and A320 planes. Lao Skyway is the budget version and uses MA60.
Personally, I prefer jet aircraft to turboprops so I stick with Lao Airlines despite its higher prices.
There are some flights a day between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. I chose the timings which are operated by the A320 plane for both the forward and return journeys. Tickets are not cheap. It costs ~$300 for a return ticket. One thing about Lao airline ticket prices is that they are fixed and not dependent on the date of flying.
Fastforward to the day of flying.
Some airplane sightings at Luang Prabang airport:
This A320 actually has seatback PTV. Though it wasn't switched on. It's great that there is the usb port.
Lao Skyway ma60
Cruising altitude for this 30 minute sector is lower than 20,000 ft. The view of Laos is great from the sky!
Another lao airline A320 at Vientiane airport
Return sector :
Blessed with great day of flying as well 😊
Overflying Luang Prabang airport.
The airport has a single runway and taxiway.
This Lao airline A320 has no seatback PTV and no usb port.
Not consistent among its fleet.
A ~5 hour layover at Luang Prabang airport. There are only a few cafe and souvenir shops before and after immigration.
