Thai AirAsia eyes China expansion

Low-cost carrier (LCC) Thai AirAsia has plans to expand its fleet in China, revealing that it is planning to add five to six aircraft per year over the next few years.

Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijleveld told CAPA TV that half of the additional aircrafts would be allocated to China, its largest international market.

China has accounted for 26 percent of the carrier’s total international capacity to date. Thai AirAsia currently, has 38,880 weekly seats across 14 routes in the Thailand-China market.

CAPA–Center For Aviation stated that China accounts for 13 of the combined 35 international destinations to which Thai AirAsia/Thai AirAsia X flies.

Thai AirAsia currently serves 11 destinations in mainland China. Its sister medium/long haul LCC Thai AirAsia X serves another two Chinese destinations.

The airline, a joint venture between the Malaysia’s AirAsia and Thailand’s Asia Aviation, is keen to grow its base at U-Tapao near the city of Pattaya, which opened in September 2015 and is linked to Macau.

The expansion on the U-Tapao/Pattaya base would enable new routes to China.

The low-cost airline has two A320s based at U-Tapao operating three domestic and four international routes – including the two mainland Chinese routes, Macau and Singapore.

According to Bijleveld, all the U-Tapao routes “are doing very well”, and the Pattaya market is promising.

The carrier is also considering launching routes from Hat Yai to Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.

Through the first three quarters of 2016, Thai AirAsia’s passenger numbers increased by 19 percent to 12.86 million.

Thai AirAsia plans to add five A320neos aircraft in 2017. Under its current five-year fleet plan it envisages a fleet of 71 aircraft by the end of 2020.

Further, Thai AirAsia is also expanding in India, which it referred to as a logical growth market for Thailand.