Thai AirAsia to connect Bengaluru with Bangkok from Sept 1

It withdrew its Kolkata-Bangkok flights from March 1, 2014

Thai AirAsia, a constituent airline of the AirAsia Group based out of Thailand, on Monday announced that it would begin five-times-a-week flights to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) from September 1.

It had withdrawn its Kolkata-Bangkok flights from March 1, 2014. The airlines also had withdrawn its Bangkok-New Delhi flights in March 2012 due to high operating cost in India, Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijleveld said in Bengaluru on Monday.

But, the cost of ATF and airport charges were prohibitively high and that affected its revenues and the company found it worthwhile to withdraw its services.

Thai AirAsia's flight FD 138 will fly from Bengaluru to Bangkok, except on Wednesdays and Saturdays while flight FD 137 will return from Bangkok to Bengaluru the same day.

"We are now more confident of doing business in India, the infrastructure has been improving. A lot of towns are moving to new airports that are better organised, and ground handling is up to the standards and a lot more people are willing to travel," Bijleveld told reporters.

He added that the airline chose Bengaluru as it alone contributed close to 16 per cent of the total travelers to Thailand from India at 150,000 out of the 950,000 travellers in 2014.

The airline has also tied up with the tourism ministry, MakeMytrip, and many others to develop its business. "We also plan to offer group incentives to multinational companies," Bijleveld said, saying that the company has learnt from its past mistakes.