Thai AirAsia sees surging demand from China
Thai AirAsia is aggressively exploring the China market after Chinese passenger numbers increased 34% year-on-year.
Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO of Thai AirAsia said; “China is growing rapidly and AirAsia is very focused on this market.
“From January-September this year, the amount of Chinese passengers has continually increase. Currently, Chinese travellers make up the largest group of international passengers who travel on Thai AirAsia, accounting for 11% of Thai AirAsia’s total passengers from January-September 2012 at 600,000 people.
“This is a significant increase of 34% compared to the same period last year which is a positive indicator of our success in tapping into the Chinese market.”
The airline will launch direct flights from Bangkok to Xi’an from 16 November, opening its third new China route of the year after successfully launching direct flights to Chongqing and Wuhan.
“Our direction for the remainder of 2012 and 2013 is to focus on further expansion in China and to add additional frequency to our popular domestic and international destinations. We are confident that as a result of this, we will hit our target of eight million passengers this year and eventually 10 million passengers by 2013”, said the CEO.
Thai AirAsia will commence flights from its new base at Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport from 1 October, operating to Hong Kong (2 daily flights), Macau (4 daily flights), Guangzhou (1 daily flight), Shenzhen (1 daily flight), Chongqing (1 daily flight), Wuhan (1 daily flight) and Xi’an (1 daily flight). AirAsia also offers direct flights from Thailand’s northern city of Chiang Mai to Macau (1 daily flight) and direct flights from Phuket to Hong Kong (1 daily flight).
In total Thai AirAsia offers 9 routes and 13 daily flights between Thailand and China.