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AirAsia and Lion Air Compete Head on in Thailand
6th Jan 2014
Thai Lion Air, the offshoot of the joint venture between Indonesia's Lion Air and Thai partner, started its commercial operations with an inaugural flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on December 4, 2013.
Lion Air is the first and largest privately-owned airline in Indonesia. By market share, it is also the largest airline flying to more local destinations than its main rival, the state-owned Garuda Indonesia.
Lion Air's Thai venture will provide new competition in the country where it already hosts to 6 low-cost carriers led by Thai AirAsia and Nok Air, the two dominant operators.
The entry of Lion Air in Thailand will surely change the ball game in the budget travel sector in the country especially that the new airline will fly to routes where Thai AirAsia also flies to.
The new budget carrier is planning to expand routes quickly this year in the hope of capturing a share in the market where Thai AirAsia is enjoying a comfortable portion of the pie.
For its initial operations, it capitalized on a couple of Boeing B737-900ER to serve its two initial destinations overseas and lone domestic destination from its hub in Bangkok. The day after it launched its inaugural flight, Thai Lion Air also launched two international routes from Bangkok to Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.
Currently, the Bangkok-Jakarta service is a twice-daily affair while its Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur route is a once-daily service. Later in January 6, it will reduce Bangkok-Jakarta frequency to once daily, while augmenting its Bangkok-Chiang Mai service by one more flight, making it a thrice-daily flights.
Beginning January 6, 2014, the budget airline will launch another international route, this time to Singapore.
Thai Lion Air has inked partnerships with its mother unit, Lion Air, and Malindo Air, its sister airline based in Malaysia. The partnership will enable three sister airlines to cross-sell tickets which adds ease and comfort to travelers flying with them across the region.
Thai AirAsia, on the other hand, is currently the largest low-cost carrier operating in Thailand flying to 32 domestic destinations, enjoying the largest market share in the budget travel sector. Other low-cost carriers operating in Thailand are Nok Air, Nok Mini, Solar Air, Orient Thai Airlines, City Airways.
Soon, barring any glitches, they will be joined by Thai AirAsia X, Thai VietJet Air and NookScoot.
With a substantial lead in the country's budget travel sector, Thai AirAsia is clearly the airline to beat in Thailand. But despite its comfortable lead, the airline is also planning to extend beyond short-haul destinations and is now in the process of getting its license approved by Thai aviation authorities to launch a long-haul service.
Called Thai AirAsia X, the long-haul budget carrier will operate from its hub in Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport and fly to long-haul regional routes such as China and Japan.
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