Thai AirAsia is the First Low Cost Carrier to Fly to Luang Prabang

11th Feb 2016

As of 24th March, Thai AirAsia will begin operating flights between Bangkok and Luang Prabang in Laos, after it was given necessary permission to do so by the Laos authorities.

This way, Thai AirAsia has become the first low cost carrier from Thailand to fly to Laos, whose skies have been restricted for some time. TAA has been looking for a way to do this for quite some time (over eight years in fact).

Three other airlines from Thailand - Bangkok Airways, Thai Airways are also operating flights between Bangkok and Luang Prabang, as well as Lao Airlines. However, unlike Thai AirAsia, these are all full-service carriers.

Promoting the launch of the new service to Luang Prabang, Thai AirAsia Chief Executive Tassapon Bijleveld said:

"It's been a long time coming, eight years since asking Laos for the rights to operate flights there."

According to Tassapon, Thai AirAsia will start flying daily to the capital of Laos, Vientiane sometime in the second quarter of 2016.

With Laos now added to its flight schedule, Thai AirAsia now operates the entire region, including Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

So far, Laotian authorities have been reluctant to allow any outside low cost carriers across its borders for fear that this will have a negative financial impact on the state-owned Lao Airlines. However, with thee concerns now becoming less of an issue, they are starting to let LCCs in.

A counselor in the Lao embassy in Thailand, Kingphokeo Phommahaxay explained that Laos's authorities at first didn't fully understand the LCC model and this cause them to be perhaps overly protective of the national carrier.

He said:

"We want to see the entry of Thai AirAsia to Lao skies result in a win-win situation."

Amornthep Chawla, Head of Research at CIMB Thai Bank said that the decision from Laos' authorities shows their willingness to increase the revenue this country can get from tourism.

"Laos is growing increasingly aware of tourism as a main contributor to its GDP growth."

TAA is now offering one-way promotional fares starting at 990 baht. These will be available until Sunday.

Right now, Laos gets between $600 and $700 million per year from the tourism industry alone and that accounts for about 5 per cent of its GDP (gross domestic product).

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