Airasia To Add Bangkok - Johor Baharu Route In February

[Jai Dee]

Airasia To Add Bangkok-JB Route In February

AirAsia is expected to ply the Bangkok-Johor Baharu route beginning Feb 25 with four flights a week.

The once-daily flight will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

An airline official said Bangkok will be the first destination in Thailand from Johor Baharu, targeting Johoreans, Singaporeans and also those flying into the city from Sabah and Sarawak.

Besides Bangkok, AirAsia will also fly to Medan and Surabaya from Johor Baharu soon, he said.

Currently, AirAsia and its Thai subsidiary, Thai AirAsia, operate seven flights daily from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, as well as serving Krabi, Phuket and Chiang Mai, on top of the Penang-Bangkok route.

The Bangkok-Langkawi and Bangkok-Kota Kinabalu services were discontinued last year due to low passenger load.

It's learnt that Thai AirAsia was not keen to operate the Johor Baharu-Bangkok route as it wanted to concentrate on strengthening its existing destinations while looking into the possibility of entering the Bangkok-Jakarta route and expanding its China base.

Source: Bernama - 25 January 2008

[ovenman]

An airline official said Bangkok will be the first destination in Thailand from Johor Baharu, targeting Johoreans, Singaporeans and also those flying into the city from Sabah and Sarawak.

Apparently, AirAsia doesn't remember their own history all that well. AirAsia previously operated the Bangkok-Johor Bahru route a few years back. It was dropped when AirAsia was granted the rights to fly BKK to Singapore.

[peter991]

Anybody have any idea when Air Asia is going to add BKK to Hong Kong to their schedule. According to their in-flight magazine, Travel3Sixty, it's supposed to be in the first quarter of 2008. I know they already fly BKK to Macau.

Peter

[nonthaburial]

They were also promising a Bangkok to Kunming service that was supposed to commence last december . Didnt materialise

[flightcrew1]

An airline official said Bangkok will be the first destination in Thailand from Johor Baharu, targeting Johoreans, Singaporeans and also those flying into the city from Sabah and Sarawak.

Apparently, AirAsia doesn't remember their own history all that well. AirAsia previously operated the Bangkok-Johor Bahru route a few years back. It was dropped when AirAsia was granted the rights to fly BKK to Singapore.

Exactly. I was thinking the same thing when I read the press release a couple of days ago in the Bangkok Post. Bangkok - Johor Baharu was their first international destination from Bangkok and did indeed drop it when they picked up Singapore.

[jeffer]

It's learnt that Thai AirAsia was not keen to operate the Johor Baharu-Bangkok route as it wanted to concentrate on strengthening its existing destinations while looking into the possibility of entering the Bangkok-Jakarta route and expanding its China base.

Source: Bernama - 25 January 2008

So when I flew last month Bangkok - Jakarta return on Air Asia it just looked like an Air Asia plane but wasn't really?

Is there anything they can't copy in Asia?

[Jai Dee]

AirAsia to fly to Johor Bahru

Budget airline AirAsia plans to fly the Bangkok-to-Johor Bahru (Malaysia) route beginning February 25.

There will be four flights a week. The daily flight will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

An airline official said most passengers to Bangkok were expected to be from Johor Bahru itself and from Singapore and those flying into the city from Sabah and Sarawak.

Besides Bangkok, AirAsia will fly to Medan and Surabaya in Indonesia from Johor Bahru "soon", he said.

Source: The Nation - 28 January 2008

[siam2007]

It's learnt that Thai AirAsia was not keen to operate the Johor Baharu-Bangkok route as it wanted to concentrate on strengthening its existing destinations while looking into the possibility of entering the Bangkok-Jakarta route and expanding its China base.

Source: Bernama - 25 January 2008

So when I flew last month Bangkok - Jakarta return on Air Asia it just looked like an Air Asia plane but wasn't really?

Is there anything they can't copy in Asia?

that was INDONESIA AIR ASIA. and after that BKK-JKT flight ( not surprisingly ) showed to be extremely successful, no wonder THAI AIR ASIA is eager to add a second frequence by themselves.

Kuala Lumpur - Bangkok is being served by two different AirAsia's as well, the AK flights are operated by the Malaysian parent-company, whereas the FD flights are those of Thai AirAsia's schedule.

its correct that AirAsia (the Malaysian) already served Johor Bharu, that flight actually continued to Kota Kinabalu after stopping at JB. as far as I know, that was the only ever scheduled AirAsia flight that had a stopover before reaching its final destination.

by the way, I really cannot understand why they are serving JB again, after they already have a couple of flights to SIN and plenty to KUL. there was no demand for that destination in the past, and there will not be any demand in the future.

if even the thrice weekly flights departing BKK to interesting tourist-destination such as Langkawi or Sabah didnt produce enough seat occupancy to operate with profit, why would they think that people wanna fly to dull Johore Bharu ?

Kudos to the THAI AirAsia - management, they were realistic and forbeared to fly to JB.

I predict that this BKK - JB flight will not survive longer than 12 months..... But I really miss the BKK - KotaKinabalu flights a lot

And I am really anxiously looking forward to BKK - Kunming or BKK - Clark flights with AirAsia..... no idea why they dont serve these destinations yet.....

[ovenman]

by the way, I really cannot understand why they are serving JB again, after they already have a couple of flights to SIN and plenty to KUL. there was no demand for that destination in the past, and there will not be any demand in the future....

It surprises me as well. I'm probably one of the few that lamented the cancelation of the original AirAsia Bangkok-Johor Bahru flight. When I visit Singapore I generally stay in JB (better value for money). Being able to fly directly to Johor and thereby not having to trek with my bags to/from Changi and across the Causeway to JB was nice. That said, I appreciate there's not much demand for BKK-JHB flights and that an airline is not gonna make money from just me alone flying that route a few times per year.