Thai AirAsia scraps Bangkok-Langkawi route

[george]

Thai AirAsia scraps Bangkok-Langkawi route

CHIANGMAI: -- Thai AirAsia is cancelling its unprofitable Bangkok-Langkawi route, replacing it with an additional daily flight to Kuala Lumpur as it plans to expand to Dhaka in Bangladesh and Kathmandu in Nepal.

Chief executive officer Tasapon Bijleveld said the Langkawi destination, which has a load factor of less than 50 per cent, will see its last flight on Saturday.

Tasapon said Thai AirAsia will increase its daily flights to Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok to three daily in December, besides the four operated by its parent company, Malaysia-based AirAsia.

“The Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok route has a very good load factor, sometimes up to 90 per cent. With more frequencies, we can offer more seats and make the tickets cheaper,” he told reporters on a media tour here on board the airline’s first Airbus 320 which arrived from France last week.

Besides Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi, Thai AirAsia, which has 11 domestic and 11 international destinations, is also flying to Penang in Malaysia while the Kota Kinabalu route is served by AirAsia.

Tasapon also said Thai AirAsia plans to fly to Kathmandu and Dhaka within 12 to 15 months, depending on the approvals by the aviation bodies and governments of the two countries.

“With our new Airbus, we can actually fly up to between six and eight hours. But we prefer to keep to our low cost model and look at destinations within three and half hours for quick turnaround time,” he said.

As part of its expansion plan, Tasapon said, it also plans to fly to Jakarta and Hong Kong in the coming months, as well as adding five more destinations in China, including Ghuangzhou.

“China is a very big market and with its open sky policy, we can add more destinations. Our current load factor is between 75 and 78 per cent,” he added.

He, however, said the airline’s plan to fly to India is unlikely to materialise in the coming months due to the difficulty in getting landing rights in that country.

Asked if Thai AirAsia will increase the fuel surcharge due to the high oil price which has reached almost US$90 per barrel, Tasapon said this is unlikely as it will affect the low cost pricing structure and make travelling more expensive.

Meanwhile, AirAsia Bhd said it had not received word from Vietnamese authorities on a licence for its airline joint venture with Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group.

The company was responding to media reports that the venture had been refused a licence by the Vietnamese government.

-- Bernama, MY 2007-10-27

[my friend I]

They should have promotes the duty-free side of Langkawi

[jonniebkk]

Didn't they also can the daily flights to Khon Keon too? I guess not enough sponsors would spring for sending their girls back home by plane rather than a few hundred baht by bus

[THAILIBAN]

yes stey stopped the KHONKAEN route as well..... again..... its already the 2nd time they started flying to Khonkaen and then stopping after a few months (last time was in 2005, if I remember that right....

it's a pity that they stopped Langkawi, but I have been on this flight myself and that was already a few weeks after they started flying to there..... it could be foreseen that this destination wouldnt last long....

another destination which they cancelled silently was Bangkok-KotaKinabalu..... which is a pity too, as it was the only non-stop connection to the wonderful nature-destination of Borneo.

its obvious that they will concentrate on CHINA in the near future, as this market offers almost unlimited growth at the moment..... the Malaysian Mother-company already announced flights Hong Kong few weeks ago, as well as Guangzhou.... Kunming will certainly follow in the near future....

And the THAI AirAsia will try to get landing rights for these places as well, as soon they get more of the new Airbus A320.....

About Langkawi: It was my first time there and I really liked the relaxed and 100% hassle-free atmosphere, relatively unspoiled nature and low number of tourists even during peak season, but its still not toooooo difficult to get there. you can fly to Hat Yai (therefore save the international departure Tax and the higher international fuel-surcharge), then take a Mini-Bus to the Jetty in Satun, then further to Langkawi by ferry....

[Briggsy]

I didn't know they had scrapped Kota Kinabalu as well. Oh well, there goes the vague plan I had to nip to Borneo.

[tigerbeer]

its a pity they scrapped the langkawi route. just got back from langkawi a few days back and had a fantastic time in cheap hotels with cheap beers!.

what a beautiful island.