Thai AirAsia taking off for India

Thailand Het laatste Thailand nieuws
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Published: 14/09/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business

Thai AirAsia hopes its long-awaited flights to India will get off the ground in mid-November after it clears the country’s complex formalities.

The no-frills carrier has already secured the traffic rights to fly from Bangkok to Kolkata and New Delhi on a daily basis and received time slots for take-offs and landings at the two Indian airports.

It is now awaiting commercial licences, including one for ticket sales, which should be ready by the end of this month, said chief executive Tassapon Bijleveld.

Thai AirAsia, 49%-owned by Malaysia-based AirAsia Bhd, expects to start selling tickets on the two new routes early next month with the usual promotional low fares.

It will become the first low-cost carrier to operate between Thailand and India, entering a new segment of the air travel market with robust potential.

With more than one billion people, India represents a large, new market frontier that the AirAsia group has been aggressively penetrating for the past two years from the parent carrier’s Malaysian home base.

“India is a largely untapped market, and with Thailand a popular destination among Indians, the outlook for our Indian network looks very promising,” said Mr Tassapon.

Thai AirAsia originally intended to inaugurate the Indian flights, starting to Mumbai, this past April, followed by three other destinations later in the year _ New Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

But plans fell through and the priority cities also changed. Flights from Bangkok to Chennai and Bangalore are also on Thai AirAsia’s radar screen.

Mr Tassapon said he foresees no difficulties in filling seats, as demand is already evident.

The timing of November’s launch, which coincides with the start of the high season, will also facilitate ticket sales, he added.

Thai AirAsia’s flights to New Delhi and Kolkata will not come at the expense of other routes served by the airline, thanks to the extra capacity offered by the arrival of additional Airbus A320s.

Bron: Bangkok Post

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dit kon nog weleens goed nieuws zijn aangezien er regelmatig goedkope tickets te vinden zijn naar vooral New Delhi dan zou je eerst de taj mahal in Agra kunnen bezoeken om vervolgens naar thailand te vliegen lijkt me wel een leuke stop over

3

Je zal dan wel eerst naar Azie moeten vliegen om daar een AirAsia vlucht te nemen naar India…

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ik schreef dat er regelmatig tickets voor mooie prijzen werden aangeboden naar New Delhi vandaar uit kan je dan naar Agra en terug om vervolgens met air asia naar thailand te vliegen … Dave wel eerst goed lezen lol2lol2lol2

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Oooooo, zo bedoel je het ! Dat is idd een idee… :slight_smile:

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TAA gears up for daily service to India

Published: 13/10/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business

Thai AirAsia (TAA) will break new ground in air travel between Thailand and India with the debut of low-cost service in December.

After nearly two years of planning and navigating India’s complex approval process, the no-frills airline will launch its long-awaited flights from Bangkok to Kolkata and New Delhi on Dec 1.

Thai AirAsia, the local affiliate of Malaysia-based AirAsia, Asia’s largest budget carrier, was granted its desired daily frequency for the Kolkata-bound route but must wait another 60 days to operate a similar seven flights a week between Bangkok and New Delhi.

Indian aviation authorities said Thai AirAsia could operate four flights a week on the Bangkok-New Delhi sector now, but the airline prefers to wait until it can offer daily flights.

The airline has been eager to capitalise on fast-growing demand for air service between the two countries and enlarge its traffic base by focusing more on the “very budget conscious” segment.

Last year, arrivals from India increased by 14.45% to 614,566, ranking fifth in Thailand’s foreign visitor tally and bringing in more than 16 billion baht in foreign exchange.

For the first eight months of this year, Indian arrivals jumped 20% year-on-year, underlying the significant growth for this sector of the market, chief executive Tassapon Bijleveld said yesterday, citing official figures.

He said the airline was upbeat about the market response to its first two Indian routes, expecting to see an initial cabin factor of 85-90%.

Thai AirAsia has said it also hopes to launch a third route, Bangkok-Mumbai, also with a daily frequency, sometime in the second half of 2011.

Mr Tassapon said the airline was also studying the potential of adding Chennai and Bangalore to its Indian network but declined to give a timeframe for when any changes may occur.

He said while AirAsia and the long-distance AirAsia X have been flying to India from their Malaysian hub, Indians still need time fully to embrace the low-cost carrier model, which is still unfamiliar to most Indians.

Thai Airways International and four legacy Indian carriers currently operate between Thailand and India.

Bron: Bangkok Post