Bangkok Airways designates Chiang Mai Airport as hub for North; introduces 4 new routes

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Bangkok Airways designates Chiang Mai Airport as hub for North; introduces 4 new routes

BANGKOK, 29 October 2014 (NNT) – Bangkok Airways is launching four new routes in support of Chiang Mai International Airport's bid to become the hub of aviation in northern Thailand, and in preparation for competition in the aviation and tourism businesses.

M.L. Nandhika Varavarn, Bangkok Airways' Vice President for Corporate Communications, revealed that Bangkok Airways is using Chiang Mai Airport as the hub for the new routes – Chiang Mai-Phuket, Chiang Mai-Udon Thani, Chiang Mai-Mandalay and Chiang Mai-Yangon – because of the province's capacities in tourism, economy and investment. The province also provides a gateway to Indochina, allowing travelers to continue their journey on to neighboring countries via many routes. The new routes will cater to travelers who would no longer need to make flight connections in Bangkok. The new routes will also make it easier to operate code-sharing flights with other airlines at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

With the launch of the four routes based off of Chiang Mai Airport, Bangkok Airways now has three aviation hubs – Suvarnabhumi Airport, Phuket Airport and Chiang Mai Airport. The airline now boasts 24 routes, 11 of which are domestic and 13 of which are international.

The airline is preparing to face increased competition in the airline business that would come with the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015; another airport might be marked as the company's aviation hub, and the number of flights might be increased.


-- NNT 2014-10-29

[whatawonderfulday]

Thailand, the hub of all hubs . the saying use to be "wheels within wheels" here it is hubs within hubs.

Where would Thailand be without all these hubs ?

[Mahseer]

Just come from Bangkok Airways CM office and they confirm the Chiang Mai-Mandalay flight is operational Tues/Thurs/Sunday and cost 7,900. Still can't book online yet but should be there shortly.

Mandalay is getting set up to accept E visa but not operational yet.

[ChangMaiSausage]

A direct flight from Qatar to CM would be great

[kamahele]

Still waiting for Korat. We do have an airport, too bad no airline flies there!

[X pat]

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a hub from to Khon Kaen from Chiang Mai. Can't under stand why we seam to be left out.

[X pat]

I don't under srand why Khon Kaen has not been designated as a direct connection to Chiang Mai.

[Diplomatico]

I don't under srand why Khon Kaen has not been designated as a direct connection to Chiang Mai.

You can fly direct on Kan Airlines (every Saturday).

http://www.kanairlines.com/main/?page_id=10

[HerbalEd]

Thailand, the hub of all hubs . the saying use to be "wheels within wheels" here it is hubs within hubs.

Where would Thailand be without all these hubs ?

Why is it that every time the word hub is used in a tv.com article, someone is compelled to make yet another snide comment about use of the word hub? These comments are actually as annoying as the frequent use of the word. We get it .... you are annoyed by the use of the word. No need to keep telling us again and again and ....

[Ricardo]

Thailand, the hub of all hubs . the saying use to be "wheels within wheels" here it is hubs within hubs.

Where would Thailand be without all these hubs ?

Why is it that every time the word hub is used in a tv.com article, someone is compelled to make yet another snide comment about use of the word hub? These comments are actually as annoying as the frequent use of the word. We get it .... you are annoyed by the use of the word. No need to keep telling us again and again and ....

Time to announce a crackdown on the use of the word hubs ?

Meanwhile it's just innocent fun, highlighting an absurdity of life, IMO.

ThaiVisa, hub of highlighting absurdity, anyone ?

[dinger]

I don't under srand why Khon Kaen has not been designated as a direct connection to Chiang Mai.

You can fly direct on Kan Airlines (every Saturday).

http://www.kanairlines.com/main/?page_id=10

And arrive some time on Sunday. I flew it once, One slow plane but got there none the less

[Ricardo]

A direct flight from Qatar to CM would be great

Agreed, with Etihad having just commenced daily non-stop flights to Phuket, and Qatar & Emirates already flying there, the next logical Thai destination for one of the Gulf-based airlines is indeed Chiang Mai, perhaps two/three times weekly with one of their smaller aircraft ?

Or perhaps Etihad's newly-acquired 25%-owned associate Jet Airways might put on an overnight B737 from Mumbai or New Delhi, feeding into Etihad's growing network ?

Whichever one does this first, saving us 3-hours & B1500-2000 each-way by not having to fly via Bangkok, will be able to feed inbound-tourists & outbound-residents into/from their wider networks across Europe/Middle-East/Africa/North-America ! And use its ff-programme to tie us into their own airline first.

I firmly believe it will come, although I'd freely admit that the second-destination of Phuket took longer to open-up, than I had forecast several years ago.

[mrtoad]

Some additional flights out if Trat would be nice. CM - Trat. , Phuket -Trat would be a real bonus for the tourist industry in Trat

[dru2]

So what are the four new routes? I personally would like to see Chiang Mai - Hanoi.

[RKASA]

So what are the four new routes? I personally would like to see Chiang Mai - Hanoi.

" hub for the new routes – Chiang Mai-Phuket, Chiang Mai-Udon Thani, Chiang Mai-Mandalay and Chiang Mai-Yangon"

[Ricardo]

So what are the four new routes? I personally would like to see Chiang Mai - Hanoi.

"Bangkok Airways is using Chiang Mai Airport as the hub for the new routes – Chiang Mai-Phuket, Chiang Mai-Udon Thani, Chiang Mai-Mandalay and Chiang Mai-Yangon" in the OP.

[IsaanUSA]

New routes are always nice

[Tomtomtom69]

Kudos to Bangkok Airways. I'm so sick of the obsession with Bangkok as Thailand's only hub as if it were the country's only city. Not everyone wants to fly into Bangkok, come to Bangkok to accomplish simple tasks or anything like that. Thai Airways has abandoned every regional city in Thailand to the point that now it only flies internationally out of Bangkok, with the exception of 1-2 routes from Phuket. Some years back you could fly from Chiang Mai to Kunming on THAI, but the geniuses at THAI decided to stop flying there at the expense of China Eastern, which operates at least 5 weekly flights on the route. And so much for Chiang Rai, which is now also served by China Eastern to/from Kunming, something that THAI would never do with it's Bangkok obsession. Similarly, THAI used to fly from Chiang Mai to Yangon and Chiang Mai to Chittagong in Bangladesh both only for a few months; the latter was probably a dumb pairing to begin with, instead of choosing a route which would show promising demand, such as Chiang Mai to Vientiane, Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, or perhaps Chiang Mai to Hanoi. THAI Smile looked promising when they paired Phuket and KL, and Phuket and Mumbai/Delhi but for whatever bizarre reasons could not keep those routes going for more than a couple of months.

If only THAI could follow in the footsteps of Bangkok Airways. All the useless hubbing out of Bangkok when Phuket and Chiang Mai, for starters, could easily be used as major hubs for Thai airlines to compliment Bangkok allowing passengers to fly directly to/from these cities and ease congestion at Bangkok. After all, nobody is forced to fly to Los Angeles if their destination is actually New York or Chicago. So why funnel everyone into Bangkok in Thailand - makes no sense to me at all and if you look at how much increased traffic Chiang Mai airport has received mainly from Chinese carriers (yes you can even reach Chiang Mai from Beijing now!) it seems ludicrous that THAI Airways has not aggressively sought to do the same.

Oh and why is basically no one flying to U-Tapao? With I dunno, something like 1/5 to 1/4 of all visitors to Thailand going to Pattaya and a perfectly good airport there, it would be more than logical to fly directly to U-Tapao, which is fairly close to Pattaya thus taking away the burden from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi and to a lesser extent Don Muang airports.

[Tomtomtom69]

So what are the four new routes? I personally would like to see Chiang Mai - Hanoi.

" hub for the new routes – Chiang Mai-Phuket, Chiang Mai-Udon Thani, Chiang Mai-Mandalay and Chiang Mai-Yangon"

Although the e-visa for Myanmar is now an option for Yangon, and soon Mandalay and Naypyidaw airports, followed by 4 land based entry points with Thailand, I think it would make sense for Myanmar to open a consulate in Chiang Mai. As a neighboring country operating only one consular office in the whole country, when some nations with far fewer nationals in Thailand can operate multiple ones (like some European countries) seems to be rather strange.

The Bangkok embassy is already at capacity as it is, with so many people applying there, including many from northern and north-eastern Thailand, both of which should have their own Myanmar consulates. Apart from Chiang Mai, how about opening one in Khon Kaen, a city which already has a Lao and a Vietnamese consulate, both relatively underutilized given that Thais don't need visas for either country, but still need one for Myanmar?

[IsaanUSA]

Kudos to Bangkok Airways. I'm so sick of the obsession with Bangkok as Thailand's only hub as if it were the country's only city. Not everyone wants to fly into Bangkok, come to Bangkok to accomplish simple tasks or anything like that. Thai Airways has abandoned every regional city in Thailand to the point that now it only flies internationally out of Bangkok, with the exception of 1-2 routes from Phuket. Some years back you could fly from Chiang Mai to Kunming on THAI, but the geniuses at THAI decided to stop flying there at the expense of China Eastern, which operates at least 5 weekly flights on the route. And so much for Chiang Rai, which is now also served by China Eastern to/from Kunming, something that THAI would never do with it's Bangkok obsession. Similarly, THAI used to fly from Chiang Mai to Yangon and Chiang Mai to Chittagong in Bangladesh both only for a few months; the latter was probably a dumb pairing to begin with, instead of choosing a route which would show promising demand, such as Chiang Mai to Vientiane, Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, or perhaps Chiang Mai to Hanoi. THAI Smile looked promising when they paired Phuket and KL, and Phuket and Mumbai/Delhi but for whatever bizarre reasons could not keep those routes going for more than a couple of months.

If only THAI could follow in the footsteps of Bangkok Airways. All the useless hubbing out of Bangkok when Phuket and Chiang Mai, for starters, could easily be used as major hubs for Thai airlines to compliment Bangkok allowing passengers to fly directly to/from these cities and ease congestion at Bangkok. After all, nobody is forced to fly to Los Angeles if their destination is actually New York or Chicago. So why funnel everyone into Bangkok in Thailand - makes no sense to me at all and if you look at how much increased traffic Chiang Mai airport has received mainly from Chinese carriers (yes you can even reach Chiang Mai from Beijing now!) it seems ludicrous that THAI Airways has not aggressively sought to do the same.

Oh and why is basically no one flying to U-Tapao? With I dunno, something like 1/5 to 1/4 of all visitors to Thailand going to Pattaya and a perfectly good airport there, it would be more than logical to fly directly to U-Tapao, which is fairly close to Pattaya thus taking away the burden from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi and to a lesser extent Don Muang airports.

Many good points in here.

Phuket does have several more international flight options compared to Chiang Mai, but it would be nice to have more options so we don't have to connect through Bangkok nearly all of the time.

Phuket domestic flights are really lacking : Bangkok, Samui, Udon, Chiang Mai

Domestic flights from random smaller airports :

Surat Thani : Bangkok and Chiang Mai

Hat Yai : Bangkok, Hua Hin, Udon, Chiang Mai

Ubon: Bangkok, Chiang Mai*

Khon Kaen : Bangkok, Chiang Mai*

Udon: Bangkok, Hat Yai, Phuket, Chiang Mai

Chiang Rai : Bangkok, Chiang Mai

U-Tapao : None (wow PG pulled out!)

Krabi : Bangkok, Samui, Chiang Mai

I don't have really any knowledge of how airlines work, but what about a few more circle routes like Kan Air? I know they do some now, but 2-3 flights a week doesn't seem like enough. It seems like Thailand needs some RJ's so the planes would be full and they could fly more often. Of course I have no idea if it is easy to just buy more smaller planes and hire more pilots, or if current mechanics can even work on RJ's.