Thai Airways arm to connect Bangkok with Indian cities
MUMBAI:THAI Airways International Public Co. Ltd plans to connect Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Kochi to Bangkok and fly more people into India, which is one of the fastest growing in the world, said a senior executive of the airline. Thailand’s flag carrier, which already flies to and from New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, plans to use its regional subsidiary, Thai Smile, for the new routes.
“We plan to operate flights in the near future to Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Kochi using services of our subsidiary Thai Smile (subject to approved bilateral between Thailand and India),” said Thamanoon Kuprasert, Thai Airways International’s general manager for India.
Thai Smile is a no-frill subsidiary of Thai Airways International, the Bangkok-based parent group, which also runs the full service carrier Thai Airways.“taking into account the immense potential of the Indian market, THAI (Thai Airways) will be increasing frequencies on Delhi-bangkok-delhi route from the current 19 flights per week to 21 flights effective 3 February, 2019,” Kuprasert said, adding that the airline flies about 735,00 passengers on the India sector, annually. It plans to increase it by up to 10% in 2019. The Thailand government had recently waived off visa on arrival fees for Indian passport holders, along with citizens of 20 other countries, travelling to Thailand between 1 December, 2018, to 31 January, 2019.