Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) president, Charamporn Jotikasthira, says the carrier is looking to establish a regional alliance with as many ten other Asian airlines in a bid to counter the growing Low Cost Carrier (LCC) threat.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Charamporn said that pending the signing of a raft of bilateral accords, the alliance could enhance regional connectivity, in particular to secondary cities where Thai has seen a number of services spring up of late.
“Demand has been changing,” the executive said. “All the requests on air traffic control into Thailand has been point-to-point to secondary cities. The model that we’ve been preaching in the past is going to be different.”
Given its current cost-cutting drive, the alliance would allow Thai to expand its route network and operations without the need to acquire other foreign carriers. But, Charamporn did note that any future agglomeration of carriers would have to compliment Thai's existing role as a member of Star Alliance.
Over the past six months, two regional alliances aimed at the budget segment have been announced: HNA Group's U-Fly alliance which caters to Lucky Air (China), Urumqi Air, West Air (China), and HK Express; and the Value Alliance which caters to: Vanilla Air, Tigerair, Tigerair Australia, Scoot, Jeju Air, Cebu Pacific Air, Nok Air, and NokScoot.
