Thai Lion sustains expansion
The aggressive network expansion of Thai Lion Air (TLA) is gathering pace, with five new routes set for launch in the next several weeks.
Three of the five routes are international and two are domestic. All originate from the low-cost carrier’s (LCC) Don Mueang airport hub in Bangkok.
The cities for new scheduled flights include Nanchang and Nanjing, both in China; Hanoi in Vietnam; and Khon Kaen and Phitsanulok, said industry insiders.
These new services come on the heels of four recent route launches: Bangkok-Chongqing, Bangkok-Chengdu, Bangkok-Trang and Chiang Mai-Surat Thani.
The new wave of launches will start with the debut of Bangkok-Khon Kaen on March 17 with 13 flights a week. It will be followed by the introduction of TLA’s second Vietnamese route, to the capital Hanoi, on March 24 with eight flights a week.
Then on March 26, TLA will commence a daily flight to Nanjing, and to Phitsanulok on the same day with six flights per week before ramping up to 10 flights a week on May 17. On April 1, it will begin regular flights to Nanchang with four flights a week.
The airline is intensifying its China strategy this year with at least two new routes looming large on its radar screen. The Chinese cities of Jiangsu and Kunming are likely to be TLA’s next destinations in the near future as the airline sees travel demand from secondary cities in the mainland to Thailand, one of China’s top foreign destinations.
Travel sentiment has revived from China after a lull caused by the crackdown on zero-dollar tour scams by Thai authorities last July.
“We are seeing more Chinese free independent travellers coming to Thailand and many of them choose to fly LCCs like ours,” a senior TLA executive told the Bangkok Post.
TLA’s inroads in China started on Oct 28 last year when Guangzhou became its first Chinese destination with a daily flight from Don Mueang. That was followed by the March 1 launch of services to Chongqing and Chengdu, both at seven flights a week.
Next month, TLA will take delivery of its 25th aircraft, a Boeing 737-900ER, which will provide the capacity needed for additional flights. The airline serves 11 domestic destinations on 14 routes, and seven international flights.