AirAsia connects India and Thailand

The low-cost carrier will introduce a daily flight for Bangkok-Kolkata and four weekly flights for Bangkok-New Delhi. Its ticket sales system was activated yesterday.

The new flights will join the existing 125 direct weekly services between Bangkok and major Indian cities operated by carriers such as Thai Airways International (THAI), Indian Airlines and Air India.

In addition, THAI will increase its frequency on two routes for the winter timetable, from October 31 to March 26. It will up its Bangkok-Kolkata service from five to seven flights per week and double its Bangkok-Mumbai service to 14 flights per week.

According to official data made available to TTG Asia e-Daily, this year’s number of incoming direct and indirect flights from India to Thailand will reach 5,895 with 1.41 million seats, representing a 12.7 per cent and 16.5 per cent increase over 2009 respectively.

The Indian market has been identified by the Thai travel trade as one of the fastest growing sources of visitor arrivals to Thailand. In the first nine months, arrivals from India totalled 531,017 visitors, a 21.6 per cent growth over the same period in 2009.

(Sources: Sirima Eamtako, Bangkok, TTGAsia)