The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Thai AirAsia (FD, Bangkok Don Mueang), Tassapon Bijleveld, says the LCC's longhaul sister, Thai AirAsia X (XJ, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi), is drawing up plans for a possible longhaul debut in Europe as early as next year.

In an interview with CAPA, Tassapon said the longhaul budget operator was currently looking at starting flights to Budapest, Prague Václav Havel, and Warsaw Chopin. Central and Eastern Europe, while important source markets for Thailand, are relatively underserved with the majority of travelers forced to transit via hubs in Western Europe, the Middle East or Russia.

Currently, Thai AirAsia X's operations are limited to China, Oman, Japan, South Korea, and Iran which it serves using six A330-300s. For its part, AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International) has alluded to the launch of longhaul flights to Europe at some point in 2017.