Thai AirAsia to fly daily to Guangzhou

Business News : Monday December 10, 2007

AVIATION

Thai AirAsia to fly daily to Guangzhou

BOONSONG KOSITCHOTETHANA

The no-frills carrier Thai AirAsia (TAA) is spreading its wings to southern China with the launch of a daily service between Bangkok and Guangzhou in February.

Chinese authorities have agreed to grant the rights for TAA, 49%-owned by Southeast Asia's largest low-cost carrier AirAsia, to fly to Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton.

Guangzhou would be the third city in mainland China that TAA serves from its Bangkok's hub. It launched flights to Shenzhen in July this year and Xiamen in April 2005.

The launch signals that TAA is making further inroads into the fast-expanding southern Chinese market, especially in the city, which is regarded as the economic centre of the Pearl River Delta and the heart of one of mainland China's leading commercial and manufacturing regions.

TAA will become the first carrier to operate no-frills low-fare service on the Bangkok-Guangzhou route and become one of a handful of budget airlines serving the New Baiyun International Airport.

TAA chief executive Tassapon Bijleveld told the Bangkok Post that the airline decided to launch the Guangzhou route ahead of other planned routes in response to an ''enthusiastic'' suggestion by the Chinese aviation authorities.

''Guangzhou offers tremendous traffic opportunities with Chinese outbound travellers, two-way business and leisure travels. Yet there are a lot Thai students studying the Chinese language in the city,'' Mr Tassapon.

TAA will use the additional aircraft capacity rendered by its fourth brand new Airbus A320, capable of seating 180 passengers, which is due for delivery in Feb next year.

Its third A320, part of the 40 A320s TAA ordered from the European plane maker Airbus for delivery over the next five years, is scheduled for arrival in Thailand next week.

Plans are afoot for TAA to expand to China with the launch of regular services to Guilin, Chengdu and Chongqing and Hong Kong, where it has been negotiating for concessions in airport charges and time slots. TAA decided to push back the launch a daily Bangkok-Jakarta flight, originally planned this month, to June next year when capacity from its fifth A320 is available. Meanwhile, TAA executives confirmed that none of the additional 25 A320s the AirAsia group ordered from Airbus earlier this week would be allocated to TAA. The additional 25 twin-jet A320s would be only for AirAsia's Malaysia operations.

''The forty A320s we are going to have are already a handful,'' a TAA executive noted, adding that the capacity covered the airline's aggressive expansion plan.

By : Bangkok Post