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Orient Thai Concentrates on China
13th Aug 2013
Orient Thai Airlines will shift its focus on the lucrative Chinese market in the coming days as it terminated its Bangkok-Chiang Mai service in early July.
With the termination of the Bangkok-Chiang Mai route, Orient Thai has only one scheduled service left in its domestic network, Bangkok-Phuket route.
The move is thought to be a strategic plan for the airline to strengthen its business in the regional charter service between Bangkok and the huge Chinese market.
The Bangkok-Chiang Mai route is one of the busiest in all of Thailand that attract not only Orient Thai Airlines but all five other Thai carriers - Thai AirAsia, Nok Air, Thai Airways International, Thai Smile and Bangkok Airways. Together, they operate more than 20 flights daily between the two cities.
Orient Thai keeps the Bangkok-Phuket route in its network because it still provides the airline substantial much-needed revenue despite the stiff competition. Phuket is very popular among Chinese tourists who are flying to Bangkok on charter flights before heading down south to the resort island.
The airline recently opened a new scheduled service that connects Bangkok to the Chinese mainland city of Guangzhou. The Bangkok-Guangzhou service is a once-daily affair which is an addition to Bangkok-Hong Kong, also a once-daily service.
The airline has launched a number of charter service between Thailand and more than 20 cities in mainland China. It finds charter service more lucrative than scheduled service because Chinese tourists who come in droves to Thailand's most popular resort destinations are seasonal.
All in all, Orient Thai was able to attract more than 600,000 Chinese tourists last year via charter flights. It is hoping to increase that figure this year to one million.
Chinese travelers comprise about 70% of the total number of passengers flying with Orient Thai.
In addition to charter service between Thailand and China, the airline is also looking forward to launch similar charter service between Thailand and Saudi Arabia for the annual haj pilgrimage.
Orient Thai has a fleet of nine aircraft, most of which are Boeing 737.
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