Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
Reviewed for: FS2024
Add-ons: FS Traffic, GSX Pro
DETAIL
Samui is my first SiamFlight airport but, having spent considerable time researching their products this past few years, I pretty much knew what to expect.
The detail is (mostly) very nice — this is an airport that does no one thing exceptionally well, but it’s a solid package that features everything us simmers expect from an airport in 2025: good ground textures, a terminal interior (although this airport makes extensive use of outdoor space), animated people (pax and workers), custom apron clutter and — something particularly important to me — an all-encompassing perimeter fence (or in this case, wall).
I’ve not seen this style of ground texturing before but it’s surprisingly effective, it not a little lower-res than is typical now. Still, it works well if viewed from no closer than the flightdeck of an airliner. Comparing the runway, aprons and taxiways to Google Maps, SiamFlight have achieved a high level of accuracy.
The GSE is a mix of default and custom, with Samui’s novel trolleybus-type passenger transporters being faithfully recreated. These vehicles are, however, quite low-res (disappointing when the custom tour buses landside are better-textured) but we do get a couple of smoothly-animated examples that tootle back and forth between the terminal and the main apron. They even have full night-lighting but sadly no passengers. As a side note, it would be great if GSX incorporated these unique vehicles, specifically for this airport.
The open plan terminal is intricately modelled but there are parts of it that look a little sterile. Luckily, the placement of some fine detail largely does a good job of disguising these sub-par areas. To be fair, the parts you see from the apron are faultless and this is arguably the area virtual pilots would prioritise. Its interior is nicely done but again, some of the finer detail should probably be higher-res, and some ‘assets’ are nothing more than 2D textures that vanish when viewed from certain angles. Two things I really like about this scenery are the fully-modelled gardens around the terminal (featuring parasols, a kids’ playground and even bean bags!), and the quality of the custom palm trees, which are not limited to endless repeats of just one or two models. This really helps capture the tropical nature of this place and I loved seeing these palms from my aircraft on my first arrival. The dev has included the small reservoirs dotted around the terminal area and the larger ones have their own water effects, that include the water drifting with the prevailing wind. Many also feature native water lilies, which add further colour to what is already a colourful scene.
Samui airport appears to be in quite a developed area but the only surrounding POIs are quite distant, on the approach for RWY17. Wat Phra Yai is a bit boxy-looking but serves its purpose well enough. There are a few custom boats and traditional Thai canoes in the small harbour, and some of them are quite detailed. I’d perhaps like to see some development immediately outside the perimeter wall, to improve immersion while taxiing.
Night-lighting is generally very good (I especially like the huge advertising billboards next to the terminal, which really ‘pop’ at night) but there are a few Asobo globes (or rather, their FS2024 equivalents) in areas they really shouldn’t be (i.e. too close to the main apron).
PERFORMANCE
Very good for me but bear in mind I have a pretty high-end system. That said, Samui isn’t a particularly busy airport and the many lower-res textures on show likely help bolster performance. I can’t imagine this airport would seriously trouble a medium-spec system — it’s not like there’s any PG in Thailand.
VERDICT
While SiamFlight’s Samui doesn’t stand out among this year’s very best airports, it is solid, and the bar needs to be slightly lowered when it comes to airports in this part of Asia (and Asia generally, I’d say). There’s really nothing missing, it just being a case of improving what’s already here. But make no mistake, SiamFlight have managed to perfectly recreate the tropical atmosphere here, from the variety of native palm trees, to the open-plan nature of the terminal and its landside. It REALLY FEELS like you’ve just landed on a Thai island!
What would I like to see added or improved? More people around the terminal’s outdoor landside, for starters — even if they’re not animated. I’d also love to see more use of custom assets on the airfield (e.g. fire tenders, airstairs, ops vehicles, etc.), and perhaps a resolution increase for some of those already featured. Finally, as mentioned previously, I think immersion would be improved by more surrounding detail, since the airport is clearly in a fairly developed area.
As for routes, the airport is owned by Bangkok Airways, who unsurprisingly have a monopoly on flights. For those who love very short ATR/A319 hops, this is a great airport, with schedules to all across Thailand (including the two Bangkok airports). Pilots preferring longer trips are also catered for, with routes to Singapore and Hong Kong.
Sadly, the terrain in this part of the world isn’t the best, and although there’s not a great deal the dev can do about it (save for offering custom ortho, which might not only be costly, but illegal too!), it does have an impact on the airfield’s surroundings. This is why I suggest adding a few more bits around the perimeter, to mask some of the ugliness.
So do I recommend this airport? Definitely. I feel a little harsh on SiamFlight saying the standards need to be lowered for Asia — that’s not a euphemistic suggestion that this airport isn’t good quality — rather, that Samui stands out as an Asian airport in MSFS, being easily as good as many recent offerings in Europe and the US. It’s not perfect but at least it doesn’t urgently need any additions, with the relatively few criticisms being aimed at what’s already included (as opposed to what isn’t). In fact, if I could only change one thing in order to be 100% happy, it would be the removal of those pesky Asobo globes at night!
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