Japan Airlines and Peach Aviation is planning to increase their flights to Thailand to cash-in the rising passenger traffic.
Kazuyuki Hijimoto, Vice-president and regional manager of Thailand, Indochina and South Asia at JAL said: “The number of JAL passengers travelling between Thailand and Japan recovered to 70-80% of pre-Covid levels. More Thai tourists are expected to travel to Japan to experience the spring season and sakura blossoms.”
JAL currently operates 3 to 4 direct flights to Thailand with plans to increase to five daily as a part of the summer schedule restoring to its pre-pandemic capacity.
“The more challenging task is luring Thai tourists to travel during the summer season, especially to Japan's northern regions such as Hokkaido or Tohoku, as well as encouraging Japanese people to travel abroad as many of them remain hesitant to venture out,” added Hijimoto.
Robert Thomas, sales manager at Peach Aviation, said: “The airline would operate a daily flight between Osaka and Bangkok from March 26. This would increase the airline's flights from six to seven flights per week.”
This route was introduced last year, replacing the Okinawa- Bangkok route, as the airline's new aircraft — an Airbus A321-LR — has a longer range that can serve demand to Osaka, which is also a popular destination among Thai tourists.