MORE DIRECT INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS TO AND FROM PHUKET
Thai AirAsia is opening a second base in Phuket for international services at a time much of the aviation industry remains in the doldrums and some airlines are making cutbacks.
As part of a growth strategy the low-cost carrier has firmed up plans to link the southern Thai resort island with four major regional cities from November.
The airline currently has a single international service to and from Phuket-Singapore, and flights to Bangkok.
Thai AirAsia will introduce daily flights from Phuket to Jakarta and to Hong Kong from around mid-November. Daily services to Ho Chi Minh City and Medan will start one month later.
The airline will station two A320 jetliners, each with a capacity of 180 passengers, at Phuket International Airport and will set up a crew center and an aircraft maintenance support base there. There are also plans to set up a third Thai hub in Chiang Mai next year to tap alternative traffic opportunities to its Bangkok base.
Phuket offers promising traffic potential, especially from those who want to travel directly to and from the island.
The chief executive, Tassapon Bijleveld, said that there are risks involved in opening a Phuket base but that they are calculated ones.
Having additional hubs to Bangkok increases the airline’s options for keeping its passenger traffic flowing through Thailand, particularly if Bangkok encounters political troubles like the blockade of Bangkok’s two airports late last year.
If the direct international service to and from Phuket is successful, the carrier may connect the resort island, not only famous for being a tropical holiday paradise but also internationally well known for its Phuket Real Estate, with cities in the Philippines and India, where it plans to establish a foothold next year.
The airline brought its 10th brand new airbus A320 jetliner in service last Friday, and is due to take delivery of the 11th in December.
Thai AirAsia is due to start a new route Bangkok-Taipei on Friday and to begin a second daily Bangkok-Hong Kong service on the same day.
The airline will next month scale back flights on some routes –Bangkok-Hanoi from twice to only once daily. Bangkok-Macao will be reduced from four to three times per day while Bangkok-Penang will go from two to one daily flight to correspond to traffic demand.
