Thursday, August 9, 2012

Thai Smile destine to become regional carrier

Thai Airways International (TG) is working to turn its low-cost carrier (LCC), Thai Smile, into a regional carrier, MD Woranate Laprabang told ATW.

The goal is to draw just under 30% of its revenues from services in Thailand while China, India and the ASEAN bloc will make up the remainder of its income.

As part of its strategy, Smile will consider taking over routes from parent TG, look at new route opportunities and potentially open a second base.

The start-up is neither a LCC nor a rival to TG but a distinct premium lite brand within a multi-brand company, Laprabang said. “You can think of Thai Smile as like SilkAir to Singapore Airlines and Dragon Air to Cathay Pacific.”

Thai Smile would take over smaller routes such as Krabi in southern Thailand from TG. This begins Aug. 16 when it launches flights using an Airbus A320 and offering more frequencies. It will begin with 4X-daily service, increasing to 5X-daily during the winter and perhaps increase to 6X-daily in January, Laprabang said.

New opportunities for Thai Smile include Siem Reap in Cambodia, Luang Prabang in Laos, Da Nang in Vietnam, Surabaya in Indonesia. In China, it includes cities such as Shenzhen, Chongqing and Hangzhou as well as Ahmadabad in Northwest India.

“I am not saying we are flying there tomorrow but these are in the picture,” Laprabang said.
The second base part of the strategy will see the start of services from Phuket to destinations such as Singapore, Guangzhou in China and Mumbai in India. Laprabang acknowledged this will be slow to occur and depends on getting slots at Singapore that it has requested.

(Michael Mackey - ATWOnline News)

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