Emirates Airline to boost Thailand flight numbers

Arguably the pre-eminent airline in the Gulf States region, the Dubai-based Emirates has announced plans to further grow its relationship with Thailand by increasing flights into the country, beginning in December this year, to take advantage of the start of the high season.

Presently, Emirates operates 10 flights per day through Thailand. There are six flights per day between Bangkok and Dubai, with three of those on the A380 Airbus and the other three on the B777-300 ERs.

There is also one flight a day from Bangkok to Christchurch in New Zealand, one a day from Bangkok to Sydney, Australia, and one from Bangkok to Hong Kong. The remaining current Emirates daily flight travels between Phuket International Airport and Dubai.

Of these four daily flights, only the Bangkok to Hong Kong route employs the A380 Airbus, with the others using the B777-300 ERs.

The December increase from Emirates will consist of an extra Dubai to Bangkok flight, employing the A380 Airbus and four additional weekly services on the Phuket to Dubai route. This route is especially popular among those wishing to spend time travelling in the southern regions of Thailand.

These additional flights will increase the combined seat capacity between Thailand and the United Arab Emirates to 4,500 passengers per day, up from the present figure of a maximum of 3,053 per day. This will make Emirates easily the largest carrier in terms of passenger numbers and flights between the Gulf states and Thailand.

Emirates has noted that the 17 August bombing at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, which led to 20 deaths and more than 100 injured, had not impacted on the numbers the airline was seeing coming out of Dubai and into Bangkok and Phuket. This is more than likely due to the belief that the attack was not part of a long-term, co-ordinated series of planned attacks.

Emirates has been a popular airline for British travellers, who change planes at Dubai for the second part of the long haul to Bangkok from London.

Emirates Thailand management has made it clear that if the added services retain their expected popularity after introduction, then the airline will consider adding even more flights to their schedule.

The company manager for Thailand and Indochina, Jabr Al-Azeeby, was quoted as saying that Emirates ‘continue to witness strong demand on a our routes to Thailand and healthy seat load factors on our Bangkok and Phuket flights.’