Nattinee Tawanchulee, Director of Commercial for Thai AirAsia, said the CLMV (Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, Vietnam) markets are strategically important to AirAsia and is in need of consistent growth and effort due to its high tourism, economic, trade and investment potential. In 2018, Thai AirAsia served 2.2 million passengers in the CLMV, accounting for 10 percent of all its passengers served and up 12 percent from 2017.
For Thai AirAsia's routes to only Vietnam, growth is already notable with 760,000 passengers served to and from Vietnam in 2018, up 24 percent from 2017 with an average Load Factor of 87 percent.
"We will be focusing on the CLMV markets in 2019, especially Vietnam where we have already announced the launch of 3 new routes this year such as Bangkok to Can Tho, Bangkok to Nha Trang and now from our Chiang Mai flight base to Da Nang at a promotional fare for one way starting from only 1,090* Baht. The Da Nang flight will start flying on 12 April 2019 as we are looking to attract Vietnamese travellers to Thailand during the Songkran holiday," Ms. Nattinee said.
Chiang Mai-Da Nang can now be booked at a promotional fare starting at THB 1,090* one way from today (25 February) until 10 March 2019 at airasia.com and via all ticketing channels for travel from 12 April to 26 October 2019.
The route affirms Thai AirAsia's strategy of establishing connections to its regional flight bases and follows Chiang Mai-Hanoi, which was unveiled to a strong reception in 2018 and has already drawn a notable amount of new visitors to Chiang Mai, adding to its large amount of Chinese guests. The route has maintained a Load Factor average of 88 percent and prompted calls for more connections.
In the Vietnamese market overall, AirAsia maintains the most capacity between Thailand and Vietnam, serving 19 percent of all passengers between the two countries with an average Load Factor across all its routes of 87 percent. The market is expanding rapidly both in terms of investment and tourism and offers a range of new experiences to travellers from across the globe with its many different cities and interests. According to Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 15.4 million foreign visitors travelled to the country in 2018, up 19.9 percent from 12.9 million in 2017, with over 12 million from other Asian countries.
A total of 349,000 Thai people travelled to Vietnam last year, up 15.9 percent from 300,000 in 2017. Thai visitors were the sixth most to Vietnam behind China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia.
"Our added routes and flight frequencies to Vietnam and the entire CLMV not only create opportunities for growth but help reduce our risks from dependence on any single source of travellers. The move will strengthen us in the long run," Ms. Nattinee said.
In 2019, AirAsia will add a total 3 new routes to Vietnam, namely; Bangkok-Can Tho (3 flighs a week) starting 2 May 2019, Bangkok-Nha Trang (4 flights a week) stating 1 May 2019 and Chiang Mai-Da Nang (1 flight a day).
Thai AirAsia flies to Vietnam from Bangkok (Don Mueang) and Chiang Mai, serving 5 destinations on 6 routes; Bangkok-Hanoi (2 flights a day), Bangkok-Ho Chi Minh (3 flights a day), Bangkok-Da Nang (3 flights a day), Bangkok-Can Tho (3 flights a week), Bangkok-Nha Trang (4 flights a week) and Chiang Mai-Hanoi (1 flight a day).