Thai Airways Intl aims 100 weekly flights from India by 2021, says official

Thai Airways International aims to operate 100 weekly flights from India by 2021, a senior airline official said.

Thai Airways and low-cost carrier Thai Smile, part of Thai Airways International, has substantial number of flights to India.

A senior official said that Thai Airways has expanded its service to 10 cities in India.

"We are targeting to operate 100 flights from India to Thailand and beyond by year 2021 which depends on approval from the Indian Government for Traffic Rights," General Manager (India) for Thai Airways International ThamanoonKuprasert told PTI.

Currently, it has 86 flights departure a week, including seasonal flights from Varanasi and Gaya.

"Thai Airways is servicing from Delhi/ Mumbai/ Bengaluru/ Chennai/ Kolkata/ Hyderabad and Thai Smile is servicing from Lucknow/ Jaipur/ Mumbai/ Varanasi/ Gaya. We are looking forward to add more service points from India in near future," he said in an e-mail interview.

India is one of the fastest growing domestic aviation markets in the world.

Noting that India is the ninth largest civil aviation market in the world, ThamanoonKuprasert said investments worth USD 6 billion are expected in the country's airport sector in five years.

"Indian government is investing heavily in developing airport infrastructure along with aviation navigation system which is key for airlines to expand or start new services from more domestic points in India," he added.

In April-June period, Thai Airways carried over 1.79 lakh passengers to India and 1.92 lakh passengers from the country, as per provisional data available with aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

During the same period, Thai Smile flew 25,168 people to India and 24,492 people from India, the data showed.