Passengers of low-cost airlines operating in Thailand must receive compensation and be provided meals if flights are delayed more than two hours but not exceeding three hours, or provided refunds if passengers do not wish to wait.
Thailand’s permanent secretary for transport, Supoj Saplom, said the Transport Ministry had recently instructed all budget airlines flying Thailand domestic routes to inform passengers about their rights in the event of flight delays.
Mr. Supoj said Ministry regulations require low-cost airlines to provide meals, drinks, and communication services for passengers of flights delayed for more than two hours but not exceeding three hours, and to provide a replacement flight or one to the nearest destination at no additional cost for flights delayed up to five hours.
If the low-cost airline purchases a ticket for a passenger on an alternate carrier and the new ticket costs less than the original, the original carrier must refund the difference.
In addition, for flights delayed of five hours or more each passenger is entitled to compensation of Bt600 (about $US19.76), but he said delays caused by a political situation, weather conditions, or work stoppages are not included.
Further, if a low-cost airline wants to issue refunds in the form of vouchers or other goods, it can only do so if the affected passenger agrees and all Thailand- low-cost airlines must provide disabled passengers with wheelchairs free of charge.
Mr. Supoj also said the regulation follows complaints from passengers about frequent flight delays, unfair ticket prices and extra fees charged by low-cost airlines in Thailand.
According to Mr. Supoj the Civil Aviation Department has been instructed to strictly enforce the regulation tot ensure the rights of passengers are protected.
Mr. Supoj said over the past years some low-cost airlines have collected a lot in additional fees resulting in low-cost airline passengers often paying fares higher than those charged by the national carrier, Thai Airways International.
Mr. Supoj also said that since that Thai AirAsia and Nok Air had increased the size of the fleets the problem of delayed flights has improved, though the ministry wanted to see it improve even more.
The regulations require low-cost airlines in Thailand to provide consumer protection agencies with details of their minimum and maximum fares and display the details on their websites, said Mr Supoj added.
Tiger Airways and South East Asian Airlines (SEAIR) have expanded their ‘Partner Airline’ arrangement with new daily flights between Clark, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, starting on 14 March 2011. The new daily service becomes the second partnership route for the airlines, following the program’s December 2010 launch of Clark-Singapore services.
Philippine low-cost carrier, SEAIR, become Tiger Airways’ first partner airline in November 2010. The scheme involves SEAIR operating the route using Airbus A320s leased from Tiger, with sales and marketing efforts will be driven through Tiger’s website.
Avelino Zapanta, SEAIR’s President & CEO, said; “We look forward to serving travelers between Hong Kong and the Philippines with our ultra low fares. This has been possible because, like Tiger Airways, we are disciplined in eliminating unnecessary costs. In addition, using the Philippines as our base gives us further cost savings which we pass on to our customers. With our new Hong Kong services and additional routes to be announced later, we are excited to contribute even more to our country’s employment, tourism industry and national economy.”
Tony Davis, President & Group CEO of Tiger Airways, added; “We are delighted to be expanding our Partner Airline program with SEAir. Tiger Airways has established a strong marketing presence in both Hong Kong and the Philippines which will ensure strong sales for these new services from SEAir. As we continue to grow this program with more routes and services we look forward to achieving greater economies of scale which means even lower fares for all travelers.”
Approvals from both the Philippines and Hong Kong authorities have already been obtained by SEAIR to operate services between Manila Clark and Hong Kong.(Travel Daily Asia)
AirAsia has partnered OnAir to offer passengers inflight connectivity services aboard the low cost carrier’s Airbus A320s.
Passengers flying on South East Asian routes from Kuala Lumpur LCC airport to destinations including Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok or Colombo can now stay connected with their friends, family and business colleagues.
Using their own GSM mobile phones or smartphones they can make and receive voice calls, send text messages or emails and access the Internet through GPRS.
Maxis is the key marketing partner of OnAir and AirAsia for this service and provides the full promotion of the GSM inflight service to passengers. This includes promotional prices on text messages and other data and sponsorship of an inflight text message contest allowing passengers to win a free drink during the flight.
“OnAir is very pleased to be working with AirAsia in entering a high-potential market,” said Ian Dawkins, CEO of OnAir. “The launch marks a very significant milestone for us as it underlines the benefits of OnAir’s services to low-cost carriers. We are also very proud to be the first to establish a strong marketing cooperation with Maxis, a major mobile phone company in this region.”
Azran Osman-Rani, Chief Executive Officer, AirAsia X, added, “this is another revolutionary passenger service initiative in the region from AirAsia. In addition to offering our guests the lowest air fares, we enable them to use their mobile phones or other preferred smartphone devices in the air, just as they do on the ground.”
Asia’s V-shaped- recovery from the global financial crisis has triggered a boom among budget airlines in the region as carriers position to meet forecasts for rising traffic.
With growth in gross domestic product in emerging Asia now forecast by the Asian Development Bank to reach 7.9 per cent this year, airlines are rushing to add enough capacity to meet predicted demand.
Activity is most intense in south-east Asia, where Cebu Pacific of the Philippines last week announced an initial public offering to raise up to $730m to buy new aircraft.
Tiger Airways, the low-cost carrier part-owned by Singapore Airlines, last week said it planned to buy nine new Airbus A320 aircraft, increasing its fleet to 26. The airline has already announced plans to launch a subsidiary in Thailand in a joint venture with Thai Airways International. Tiger also runs a subsidiary in Australia.
Meanwhile, Malaysia-based AirAsia, the region’s largest low-cost carrier, recently unveiled plans for a joint venture in Vietnam, alongside its existing operations in Thailand and Indonesia.
Cebu Pacific would not comment on its planned IPO, for which Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan are joint global lead managers.
However, a person with knowledge of the transaction said the airline was expected to raise at least $500m to expand its domestic network, the largest in the Philippines, and add to its south-east Asian international destinations.
Boeing, the US aircraft manufacturer, is forecasting growth of 8.3 per cent a year for the next 20 years in route passenger kilometres – a key measure of airline traffic – flown within south-east Asia.
That compares with 7.1 per cent for the Asia Pacific region, 4.1 per cent for Europe and just 2.8 per cent for North America.
In addition to rapid economic growth, south-east Asia is also benefiting from the run-up to the implementation in 2015 of an “open skies” deal among the 10 countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations.
The countries have a combined population of 600m and an economy the size of India’s.
“All the airlines are positioning themselves for this because instead of bilateral deals limiting them to flying between city pairs, the agreement will open a huge market into second and third-tier cities that hasn’t been tapped,” said the person with knowledge of the Cebu Pacific IPO.
Elsewhere in Asia, IndiGo, India’s biggest low-cost carrier, has announced plans to acquire 150 new aircraft, and is said by bankers to be preparing for an initial public offering in Mumbai aiming to raise about $400m. The company said recently, however, that an IPO was not imminent.
All Nippon Airways, the full-service Japanese carrier, is launching a budget subsidiary in a partnership with First Eastern Investment Group of Hong Kong, and Garuda, the Indonesian flag-carrier, is buying 20 new Boeing aircraft and preparing for an IPO to raise about $300m.
The expansion plans are causing significant strains, however. Some airlines, notably Philippine Airways, have had to cancel flights because of a shortage of pilots – many of whom have been attracted to Gulf airlines, such as Dubai-based Emirates, by higher salaries and benefits.
Emirates said recently that it plans to hire 250 pilots this year and 500 in 2011. Boeing forecast last week that Asia will be at the forefront of staff requirements over the next 20 years, with China alone needing an extra 70,600 new pilots and south-east Asia 42,000.
AirAsia, the world’s best low-cost airline celebrates its inaugural flight to Hat Yai from Kuala Lumpur signifying AirAsia’s final connection to South Thailand with a 90 percent flight load.
Kathleen Tan, Regional Commercial Head, AirAsia says: “There has been a demand for AirAsia to connect Hat Yai to Kuala Lumpur, and we are excited to fulfill this demand of an unserved market. AirAsia is the only airline to connect Hat Yai direct from Kuala Lumpur with daily flights. This new route was opened for sale recently in June, and the response has been encouraging. With AirAsia’s vast network and excellent connectivity, travelers from Hat Yai can now connect all over the world via AirAsia’s regional hub in Kuala Lumpur to all ASEAN countries, China, India, Australia and Europe with ultra low fares. It will also be more convenient for frequent travelers to Hat Yai to fly instead of driving long hours, which will translate into more time for shopping and sightseeing at Hat Yai.”
“This route adds another significant milestone for us as it is AirAsia’s final connection to South Thailand, which reiterates our commitment to expand the ASEAN market. We recently completed our network to all ASEAN countries from Kuala Lumpur in July with our newly launched Kuala Lumpur to Yangon flight. With this new addition, AirAsia now has a total of 140 flights weekly from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Krabi, Phuket and now Hat Yai,” Tan added.
AirAsia’s Thai affiliate, Thai AirAsia also flies to Hat Yai from Bangkok with 4 flights daily.
FLIGHT SCHEDULE
Flights From Departure / Arrival Flight No Frequency
KUALA LUMPUR – HAT YAI 1145hrs / 1200hrs AK 770 Daily
HAT YAI – KUALA LUMPUR 1235hrs / 1445hrs AK 771 Daily
AirAsia is increasing its flight frequencies for selected cities throughout the festive season of Hari Raya between 3 September and 17 September 2010.
The destinations included for the additional flights are Kuala Terengganu (from 3x daily to 9x daily), Kota Bharu (from 6x daily to 12x daily), Langkawi (from 7x daily to 11x daily), Solo (from once daily to 5x daily), Yogyakarta (from once daily to 3x daily), Medan (from 4x daily to 6x daily) and Surabaya (from 4x daily to 8x daily).
Kathleen Tan, Regional Head of Commercial, AirAsia said, “With the additional flights, it will be more convenient for our guests to travel safely and comfortably back to their hometowns and celebrate Hari Raya with their family and loved ones. We hope that by planning and announcing the additional flights earlier, our guests will be able to beat the usual ‘balik kampung’ rush. We have also decided to add frequencies for four Indonesian routes to facilitate the Indonesian workforce in Malaysia to return to their families for Hari Raya. Furthermore, with the Hari Raya break, guests can also take advantage of these additional flights and AirAsia’s low fares for a relaxing break from work.”
Passengers of low-cost airlines operating in Thailand must receive compensation and be provided meals if flights are delayed more than two hours but not exceeding three hours, or provided refunds if passengers do not wish to wait.
