Air Asia plans Sri Lanka service

Thai AirAsia plans to launch a daily service to Colombo this December, while bureaucracy and red tape in India continues to delay the launch of Chennai and Bangalore services to mid-2012.

Thai AirAsia CEO, Tassapon Bijleveld, told the press, Monday, on the sidelines of an announcement to offer air travel sponsorship to nine Thai football teams, that the airline would launch daily service to Sri Lanka’s capital city, Colombo soon. No dates were mentioned, but it is likely the service will start with the winter schedule this December.

“We hope to start the  in December. The problem is a the drawn out documentation required by the authorities in Sri Lanka and that could delay the process,” said Mr Tassapon.

Similar delays hit plans to fly to Chennai and Bangalore in India, but Mr Tassapon said if documentation was not completed for a launch this year, the airline would postpone it to the middle of next year. The plan to fly from Phuket to Indian city is also on hold.

Meanwhile here in Thailand, Thai AirAsia is discussing opportunities to expand its network from its Chiang Mai hub.

“Of course we will add destinations there but they have not been concluded. The private sector has asked for more regional flights,” added the CEO. A city in southern China is a possibility.

Regarding a stock exchange listing, the filing of financial statements will be completed in September and the initial public offering will be in December.

Mr Tassapon declined to give details of the airline’s performance except to say it will achieve a target of 7 million passengers by the end of the year and enjoy a 20% revenue growth over last year with average load factor at 81%.

Responding to the coming of a new competitor, Thai Smile, Mr Tassapon said  he never worried about competitors.

“The two factors that worry me are politics and fuel prices,” he added. “Politics, which are also uncontrollable, sees to be peaceful for now and oil price may reduce slightly, but we still need to keep a close watch and be careful with fuel hedging.”

In order to create brand awareness, the carrier is now sponsoring local football teams on top of a popular local band.

Thai AirAsia has been sponsoring Thai football teams playing in the premier league and division one  for two consecutive years. It has now increased sponsorship to nine teams. The airline sponsors just one band, Carabao, one of the most famous in the country.

“By doing this, we create brand awareness with football fans, some fans follow them and book tickets on the same flight…For Carabao, its concert visit every province, which helps us improve our market penetration,” said Mr Tassapon.

The nine football teams have an average of 200,000 to 300,000 fans excluding audience who watch matches on television.

Source - ttrweekly