Thai Lion Air Enters 3rd Year of Operation

12th Feb 2016

They say that the first year or two are when most companies fail and that if you manage to keep going you're on the right track. Thai Lion Air has just entered its third year of operation and things are looking good for TLA.

Now the no-frills carrier is set to go even further with seven new Boeing 737 planes, a network expansion and a 600 million baht investment into its pilot training facility near the capital of Bangkok.

Thai Lion Air also plans to introduce new domestic and international routes.

It will soon start a new route that will take passengers from Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok to the province of Trang. This route should be served with 2-3 flights a day.

As for international routes, TLA seems to be focusing on China mostly and will add routes to it from Krabi and Surat Thani provinces. In addition, the airline also offers charter flights from Bangkok to Jinan, Changsha and Chongsqing.

There could be a problem with this plan, however. Namely, Thailand civil aviation is still under scrutiny by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). Despite that, TLA doesn't believe it will run into too much trouble with the Chinese authorities in regards to getting traffic rights.

Last year in September, Thai Lion Air did get the rights to start new international routes courtesy of IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit). In order to get a green light for this audit, TLA had to pass no less than 900 global standards regarding operational safety, both in the skies and on the ground.

Now that it has a positive mark from IOSA, Thai Lion Air's chances of getting re-certified by the Civil Aviation Office of Thailand as an airline operator are much higher and that's a good sign for the company.

The airline's Chief Executive Aswin Yangkirativorn also talked about future plans TLA has for its fleet and possibly adding a few larger wide-body planes next year which will allow the carrier to fly longer routes. By the end of 2016, TLA will have a total of 25 Boeing 737-800s and B737-900ERs.

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