Kingfisher to fly to Bangkok from August
Kingfisher to fly to Bangkok from August
New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines Ltd plans to start is first flight to South-East Asia in August with the low-fare Kingfisher Red service to tap into the peak winter tourist traffic in the region after September.
The Kingfisher Red flight, which will not offer any business class seats, will fly daily between Kolkata and Bangkok starting 14 August on an Airbus SAS-made A320 aircraft, according to the carrier’s website.
It will be the airline’s fifth low-cost international service. The carrier recently launched a Kingfisher Red service between Bangalore and Dubai, and has daily flights from Bangalore and Chennai to Colombo as also from Kolkata to Dhaka.
“If you look at this region, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur are rising very fast and tour operators are pushing these sectors hard," said Aloke Bajpai, New Delhi-based chief executive officer of Le Travenues Technology Pvt. Ltd-run travel website iXiGO.com. “For several first-time international travellers from tier-II cities, these places are ideal budget choices."
On the Kolkata-Bangkok route, the Kingfisher Red service will have to compete with three direct daily flights including ones by National Aviation Co. of India Ltd-run Air India, Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Thai Airways, which could lead to cheaper fares on this sector.
Given this low level of competition, Bajpai said the new route, lasting under three hours, will be easier to break even compared with flights of similar duration on domestic sectors.
A Delhi-Bangalore route, with the same flying time, has over 20 daily flights.
Still, the break-even will depend on passenger numbers on the new route.
On Thursday, Jet Airways announced it will launch its second daily service to Bangkok from Mumbai starting 16 August.
The airline operates a daily service to Bangkok from Mumbai, as well as from Delhi and Kolkata.
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