Epic: Thai King & Queen Pilot Their Own 737 For Bhutan State Visit

Thailand’s King and Queen piloted their government jet for their first official state visit, and that’s kind of amazing (thanks to @jdeliens for flagging this)…

Thai King & Queen land 737 at Bhutan’s Paro Airport

On April 25, 2025, Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida made their first official state visit since ascending to the throne in 2019. Specifically, they spent four days in Bhutan, where they were hosted by the country’s King.

As you’d expect, lots of preparations are typically made for state visits, and it’s common to have a major ceremony on arrival. However, the King and Queen made quite the entrance for a completely different reason — they were at the controls of their own Boeing 737-800.

It’s exceptionally rare for a head of state to be a pilot. It’s even rarer for them to pilot a plane on an official visit like this. And it’s even rarer for a King’s first officer to be the Queen.

Here’s the other thing — the plane flew to Paro, Bhutan (PBH), which is known as being one of the most challenging airports in the world to land at, due to the complicated approach, and mountainous terrain. The airport is at an altitude of around 7,400 feet, and is surrounded by Himalayan peaks of up to 18,000 feet. Only about 50 pilots worldwide are certified to land at the airport, given the special training required.

Below you can see video footage of the 72-year-old and 46-year-old duo at the controls of the plane, and even see footage of the landing from outside the aircraft.

Below is more about the visit, how they were greeted upon arrival, etc. “Sorry, King of Bhutan, I just need a few minutes to run through some checklists and change, and then I’ll come say hi.”

I knew Thailand’s King was an aviation geek, but wow

I’m not like some King of Thailand fanboy (but I’m also not *not*, because it’s illegal to not say nice things about him), but I did know he was a pilot, and a bit of an aviation geek. He spent years in the Royal Thai Army, where he was a military pilot who was qualified to fly all kinds of aircraft, ranging from fighter jets to passenger planes. For that matter, he reportedly has a 737 in Thai Airways colors in the backyard of his residence, as a garden ornament of sorts.

What I wasn’t aware of is that his wife is a pilot as well. She was actually a flight attendant until 2008, at which point she joined Thailand’s military, and was eventually promoted to be Vajiralongkorn’s bodyguard, back when he was the Crown Prince. Five years later, they married.

So, how did the King and Queen prepare for this flight? The King was the one flying, and he reportedly spent three days training in a simulator, and another two days training at a military airport, in order to get up to speed on all the procedures for operating at this airport. Furthermore, there was a pilot from Bhutan’s national airline, Drukair, monitoring them and providing assistance in the flight deck.

For what it’s worth, the King and Queen also piloted their own plane on departure from Paro. I’m guessing they didn’t get too much attitude or too many holding patterns from air traffic controllers along the way, and in Thailand.