Indian Airlines Boosts Services To Thailand

[george]

Indian Airlines boosts services to Thailand

BANGKOK: -- Underscoring its move to make Bangkok its important overseas hub, state-owned Indian Airlines (IA) has quietly boosted its flight frequencies between Thailand and India by 24 a week to 51, making it the largest provider of air services between the two countries.

The 52-year-old carrier, often confused with India's other government-owned airline, Air India, which mostly operates inter-continental routes, is cashing in on the fast-growing trade, commercial, social, cultural and tourism exchanges between the countries.

IA's decision to add 24 more flights a week since last March underlines the rising air-travel demand, especially among businessmen, leisure and vacation passengers, many of whom are Indian nationals and Thai-Indians living in Thailand, said Rakesh Bhatia, manager for Indian Airlines in Thailand.

It is in line with the ''Look East'' policy being pursued by the Indian government, as well as the desire of the Thai government to enhance relations with India, one of Asia's emerging economic powers, in addition to China.

The ''open skies'' policy being adopted by India and Thailand has also helped facilitate IA's international expansion that began in 1992 with the startup of service to Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, building on its traditional network in various countries in the Indian Subcontinent like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, the Maldives and Afghanistan.

In the first six months of this year, Indian nationals arriving at Bangkok international airport were up 13.11 % to 163,912 even though the total number of visitor arrivals at Bangkok airport were up by only 1.3% in the same period.

Some 40,000 Thais visited India last year, many of whom went to Buddhist pilgrimage sites, and the number is expected to increase further this year.

IA is offering a series of daily departures from Bangkok to Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Jaipur, Calcutta, Gaya, Gawhati, Bangalore and Hyderabad, using Airbus A320 jetliners, with up to 700 seats out of Bangkok every day.

In comparison, Air India offers services from Bangkok to two Indian cities _ Bombay and Delhi.

IA flies to 54 Indian cities, unmatched by any other airline.

IA started flying to Bangkok in June 1985, with service to and from Calcutta. From Bangkok, IA also has onward daily flights to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

The carrier now flies to a total of 18 international destinations, about half of them to Gulf state cities.

The latest destination added to IA's network is Kabul in March this year.

Mr Bhatia said Indian Airlines was also keen to promote outbound travel from Thailand to India.

There is considerable potential for Buddhist pilgrimage travel to Gaya, which is connected by a once-a-week flight from Bangkok. There is also a large volume of Thai business travel and visiting friends and relatives traffic, he added.

About 45% of IA's passengers on the Thailand-India sector are businessmen and 35% leisure and vacation travellers.

He said IA had adopted a ''reasonable'' fare structure competitive to other airline operating on the same routes to India. For instance, for Bangkok-madras, its fare is about 10% cheaper than Thai Airways International.

IA claimed a load factor of some 70% on Thailand-India routes in the first half of this year and expects the percentage to be higher in the second half due to the stronger high-season travel.

IA and its subsidiary Alliance Air Service Ltd has a fleet of 63 aircraft, consisting of 47 Airbus A320s, four A330s, 11 Boeing 737s and two Dorniers.

--Bangkok Post 2005-07-23