While Thailand’s flag carrier Thai Airways struggles, two recent low-cost airlines are preparing to launch in 2020. The past decade has been a difficult 12 months for Thailand’s legacy airline, with recent, more agile and wealthy players.
As reported last week in The Thaiger, each Thai Summer Airways and Thai Eastar Jet have obtained aviation operating licenses from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand and are currently within the strategy of obtaining air operator certificates.
CAAT CEO Chula Sukmanop said that by law, recent airlines must start industrial flights inside 12 months of receiving an AO certificate. Follow us on Feedly While Thailand’s flag carrier Thai Airways struggles, two recent low-cost airlines are preparing to launch in 2020. The past decade has challenged traditional Thai airlines as recent, more agile entrants enter the market and wealthy players.
As reported last week in The Thaiger, each Thai Summer Airways and Thai Eastar Jet have obtained aviation operating licenses from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand and are currently within the strategy of obtaining air operator certificates.
CAAT CEO Chula Sukmanop said that by law, recent airlines must start industrial flights inside 12 months of receiving AOL
“Technically, both airlines will have to start operations before the end of next year.”
Both airlines plan to supply charter flights within the early stages of operations until a full flight schedule is established. The two airlines can be the primary Thai-registered aircraft to start industrial flights since Thailand was red-flagged by the International Civil Aviation Authority in June 2015 because of “serious safety concerns.”
However, in October 2017, ICAO raised a red flag, indicating that Thailand’s aviation safety standards now meet international standards.
Thai Eastar Jet, a three way partnership between Thai and South Korean investors, will start by operating charter services between Bangkok and the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, but plans to construct a core business that features flights between Thailand and South Korea.
Thai Summer Airways, a three way partnership with Chinese investors, will deal with routes between Thailand and China using Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Both recent airlines are a part of the trend of increased Thai tourism, with the variety of tourists to Thailand increasing by almost 3% in 2019. The variety of Western tourists has not modified, but Asian tourism is growing, especially from China and India.
Across Asia, incomes are rising, more individuals are flying more often, and more airlines are taking over the challenge and opening more destinations. In 2019, 64% of all tourists to Thailand got here from just 4 Asian countries – China, Malaysia, South Korea and Laos.
SOURCE: Just flying
