Thai airline to connect Kolkata with Bangkok five times a week
Subhro Niyogi | TNN | Mar 14, 2019, 09:42 IST
Picture used for representational purpose onlyKOLKATA: By the end of this month another airline will connect the city to its favourite overseas destination — Bangkok. Thai Smile — the regional airline of Thai Airways — will fly into Kolkata late on March 31 and take off for Bangkok in the wee hours of April 1.
This is the seventh airline to operate direct flights between Kolkata and Bangkok. While Thai Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Thai AirAsia operate daily flights, Druk Air and Bhutan Airlines operate one and three flights a week respectively.
The Thai Smile flight will operate five days a week, except on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The airline that has a fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft will operate an A320 neo aircraft with 162 seats in two class configurations: economy and premium economy. The airline has offered an inaugural one-way fare of Rs 8,993 per person. Fares on the sector range between Rs 9,000 and Rs 16,000. During tourist season, it scales up to Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000.
Travel Agents Federation of India chairman (east) Anil Punjabi welcomed the new addition. “The regional airline is a full service carrier, providing meals and beverages and offering higher baggage allowance of 20kg on economy class and 30kg on premium economy. It is good to have a full service carrier fly into the city and not just low-cost airlines,” he said.
The travel trade industry, though, is worried about what the increased capacity will do to fares and viability. Jet Airways withdrew its flights between Kolkata and Bangkok a few years ago due to low yield and IndiGo reduced its frequency from twice daily to one daily flight.
This is the seventh airline to operate direct flights between Kolkata and Bangkok. While Thai Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Thai AirAsia operate daily flights, Druk Air and Bhutan Airlines operate one and three flights a week respectively.
The Thai Smile flight will operate five days a week, except on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The airline that has a fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft will operate an A320 neo aircraft with 162 seats in two class configurations: economy and premium economy. The airline has offered an inaugural one-way fare of Rs 8,993 per person. Fares on the sector range between Rs 9,000 and Rs 16,000. During tourist season, it scales up to Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000.
Travel Agents Federation of India chairman (east) Anil Punjabi welcomed the new addition. “The regional airline is a full service carrier, providing meals and beverages and offering higher baggage allowance of 20kg on economy class and 30kg on premium economy. It is good to have a full service carrier fly into the city and not just low-cost airlines,” he said.
The travel trade industry, though, is worried about what the increased capacity will do to fares and viability. Jet Airways withdrew its flights between Kolkata and Bangkok a few years ago due to low yield and IndiGo reduced its frequency from twice daily to one daily flight.
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