Mr. Pandit Chanapai, THAI Executive Vice President of Commercial, and panelist on the “Greater Mekong Growth and Development” discussion, said that THAI has long been committed to serving passengers in the Mekong region, a commitment that will be carried forth by THAI Smile, a new service of Thai Airways International that will operate domestic and regional flights. Mr. Chanapai said THAI Smile will operate flights to and from regional markets with a flight time of approximately three hours. THAI Smile will begin its first flight on 7 July 2012 with a roundtrip twice-daily flight from Bangkok to Macau and initially will operate roundtrip domestic flights from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Surat Thani, and Chiang Mai-Phuket. In the near future THAI Smile flights plans to operate to destinations in the Mekong region, such as Yangon, Phnom Penh, and Vientiene.
Present at the Euromoney “Greater Mekong Investment Forum” were: Mr. Chartsiri Sophonpanich (2nd from left), President, Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited, Mr. Pandit Chanapai (3rd from left), THAI Executive Vice President, Commercial, Mr. Tony Shale (2nd from right), CEO, Asia, Euromoney Institutional Investor, and Mrs. Wasukarn Visansawatdi (3rd from right), THAI Executive Vice President, Finance and Accounting.