Bangkok Airways Adds Four Services to Tap High Season
By Boonsong Kositchotethana, Bangkok Post, Thailand
Jul. 22–Bangkok Airways plans to add four new routes to its expanding network to meet increased demand during the high travel season that begins on Oct 29.
The new routes are from Bangkok to Vientiane, Bangkok-Krabi, Chiang Mai-Siem Reap, and Samui-Krabi.
At the same time, the carrier will also start running daily flights on its Hong Kong-Samui, up from five times a week, according to vice-president Nandhika Varavarn.
Vientiane will be the third city in Laos that the airline will serve in addition to Luang Prabang and Pakse, which were launched in April this year.
The carrier plans to fly as many as five times a week to the Laotian capital, using the 162-seat Airbus A320 twin-jet aircraft.
It will also operate an A320 jet on the Bangkok-Krabi route, which the carrier is reviving after having suspended service a few years ago.
The airline will offer three flights a week on the Samui-Krabi route on board an ATR 72 turbo-prop aircraft that can carry 70 passengers.
However, service from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap will be one way, forming a flight loop as part of the airline’s Mekong World Heritage network. An ATR 72 will also be used on the route, which will run twice a week.
The additional Hong Kong-Samui flights, meanwhile, will be handled by a Boeing 717-200, a jet capable of carrying 125 passengers.
Bangkok Airways currently operates flights to more than 20 cities in Thailand and neighbouring countries.
They include China, Cambodia, Vietnam and Burma.
It has recently taken delivery of the first of seven brand-new Airbus 319s that will support its strategy to offer medium-range flights.
The other six airplanes are due to join the privately owned carrier’s fleet sometime between next year and 2009.
Though the aircraft is capable of flying seven hours, Bangkok Airways plans to use the jetliner on its Bangkok-Phuket and Bangkok-Siem Reap routes.
It plans to use the A319s, a shortened version of the A320, on routes frequented by premium passengers such as the Maldives, and to the Japanese destinations of Hiroshima and Fukuoka.
Excluding the new A319, the airline’s fleet consists of 16 aircraft: eight ATR 72 propellers, four Boeing 717-200s, and three Airbus 320 airliners.
The airline has been in talks with the European planemaker Airbus on whether to retain its order for six A350 XWBs, the new generation of mid-sized long-range jets for which production has been delayed for three years.
The A350 XWB would be instrumental to Bangkok Airways’ plan to launch its first long-haul route from Bangkok to Europe.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Bangkok Post, Thailand
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