Air Asia Discontinue Bangkok - Delhi Service

AirAsia (TAA) has made a business decision that may affect many of their frequent flyers: the cancelation of flights from Bangkok to New Delhi. The airline has made the decision in order to cut costs.

Citing the non-existent pool of outlets readily stocking inexpensive fuel supplies and the elevated level of maintenance required to keep the former flight within safe operations, Tassapon Bijleveld, AirAsia's chief executive, announced the suspension of Bangkok-New Delhi service.

These flights are scheduled to be removed from AirAsia's services beginning in mid-February. Initially, the airline will only remove half of the available flights. In late March, they hope to have completely weaned customers off of their dependence on the flight. Their model allows customers ample time to seek out alternative routes.

A week prior to the formal declaration, an affiliate company of TAA, AirAsia X, also made adjustments to their flight plan, cutting air travel from Kuala Lumpur to Gatwick. Similarly, their motivation for reduced services was tied to the economy, but for them, those nuisances were elevated handling charges.

Thai AirAsia has reported that the possibility of reopening any closed flights to India is directly dependent on a stable, low cost. At this time, Tassapon also reinforced the stability of flights from Bangkok to Kolkata.

With more A320 jets slated for arrival, TAA is looking to revamp its business model, expanding into more affordable international markets as well as strengthening the quality of in-house flights.

That business model depends upon the success of three recently-integrated destinations from Bangkok: Trang, Nakhon Phanom, and Colombo. Flights to Trang began operation earlier this month with the other two destinations scheduled to begin in February and March respectively.

Any customers with Bangkok-New Delhi tickets dated after the closure date will be transferred to new flights.

These recent cutbacks cast doubt on Thai AirAsia's recent investigation into possible destinations in India but do insure that the remaining flights will provide an enhanced customer experience.

Thursday, 26th January 2012 at 04:17am