AirAsia eyes Bangkok as regional hub
AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes has met with Thailand’s prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to ask the government to help Asia’s biggest low-cost carrier to expand its regional network.
Fernandes, who was accompanied by group executives, including Azran Osman-Rani, chief executive officer of AirAsia X, said after the meeting he was confident of using Thailand as a regional hub for the airline.
Yingluck said the government had been improving key provincial airports such as Chiang Mai, Udon Thani, and Krabi to make them suitable to welcome foreign arrivals directly.
AirAsia was assured that the government’s policy is to promote Thailand as a hub for low-cost carriers in Asean, The Nation newspaper reported.
AirAsia’s current hub is in Kuala Lumpur.
by Ian Jarrett, TravelMole Asia Pacific
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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