Indian Airlines has increased its flights to Southeast Asian destinations as the countries ease visa rules. Because of the visa regime’s ease, traffic is increasing in countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Last week, India and Thailand finalized an agreement that allows airlines to deploy more flights between these two unique destinations. In a meeting held in Bangkok, both countries agreed to increase the capacity to 14000 seats per week, which is about a 43 percent increment.Â
According to the government official’s statement, the increment will be done in two phases of 7000 each, and the flying rights have been distributed also to Go First. These rights were given to Thai Airlines before its bankruptcy filing, among other Indian airlines. This allows them to increase flights to some major destinations, mostly preferred by tourists, including Phuket, Singapore, and Bangkok.
After this, the subsequent passage of flight increment between India and Thailand will occur when carriers of any country have utilized 80 percent of the existing seat share, according to an official who is aware of the development. The rights of flying are allocated by the government to airlines on a bilateral reciprocal basis to the country and airlines cannot operate more than the allocated flights. At present, Indian Airlines are allotted about 32000 seats while Thai carriers can operate about 29500 seats per week. Expanding existing agreements is much needed as Thai carriers have exhausted their allocation, and Indian airlines have used about 80 percent of the share. As of 10th November 2023, Thailand has permitted visa exemptions for Indian travelers to stay for about 30 days up to May 2024. Also, owing to the strong and positive response, the country may likely increase the exemption period as well.
After this visa exemption, there has been a noticeable increase in daily Indian arrivals from about 4000 to 5500 people as Indians consistently travel abroad. According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, South Asian countries are also trying to capitalize on the growth. According to travel industry sources, Vietnam is also seeking to offer visa-free entry to Indians from the middle of this year.
CEO of online travel podium Agoda, Omri Morgensten, said: “I don’t think there is a single country which doesn’t have an India plan,”. He added, “This country is the tourism powerhouse currently.” India is now Vietnam; ‘s fastest-growing tourism market, with several visitors in comparison to the previous year, exceeding to about 390,000 i.e. up 23 percent from pre-COVID times.
Indian Airlines has the right to operate flights to four new airports in Thailand: Hat Yai, Chaing Rai, Udon Thani, and Surat Thani. As per a statement by a person who has requested not to be identified, “This is a very positive development for passengers and airlines of India,” an airline executive said. “While there will be more flights, leading to rationalization of airfare, Indian airlines now have access to all 10 Thai international airports,”.
Agoda has noticed Bangkok surpassing Dubai as the most preferred destination after the visa-free regime; on the other hand, it increases up to 90 per cent for Malaysia. According to Morgensten “Once visa restrictions are off, people can travel without a lot of planning. So, all of a sudden you see a spurt in growth,”. According to wordings of Airline executives they are increasing more flights between India as well as Southeast Asian countries as they grow.
Air Asia also took a step and increased flights between India and Malaysia to 69 in the first quarter of 2024 connecting Kuala Lumpur to major i Indian cities, including New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram and Cochin. Also, Air India launched four weekly flights in December, starting to Phuket from Delhi, and Indigo on the other hand has connected Bali in Indonesia from Bengaluru as well.
