Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) will formally transfer its Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Mandalay International, Myanmar route to subsidiary Thai Smile (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) with effect from next month. The announcement comes after Thailand's regional neighbours reacted angrily to Thai Airways deploying Thai Smile onto some of its routes claiming the move was intended to undercut their operators.
Countries such as Laos and Myanmar argued that doing so was a breach of their respective Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) as Thai Smile, with its own Air Operators certificate (AOC) and unique flight code, was considered a separate carrier to its parent and was therefore required to apply for its own frequencies and route allocations.
In April, Chalongchai Hiranyalekha, chief commercial adviser to THAI Smile, said pending the issuance of the requisite traffic rights, the carrier was looking to serve Mandalay, Yangon, Hyderabad International, Colombo International, Chongqing, Phnom Penh, and Luang Prabang from July onwards.
