Bhubaneswar: Malaysian budget airline AirAsia launched its first ever direct flight operations between Bangkok and Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
As many as 30 flyers reached Bhubaneswar from Bangkok in Air Asia’s Airbus A 320 plane at 11.35 pm yesterday in its maiden flight on the airline route following which the plane was welcomed with a water cannon salute.
Similarly, a total of 165 passengers left for Bangkok from Bhubaneswar Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) at 12:25 am on Friday.The passengers were accorded a grand welcome at the BPIA before they took off.
Tour operator, Debasmita Basasaid “The fare from Bhubaneswar to Bangkok is much cheaper than Kolkata-Bangkok route and it also saves time. The new India -Thailand connection will help attract foreign tourist footfall to the State.”
The Bhubaneswar-Bangkok AirAsia flight will fly three times in a week- Wednesday, Friday and Sundaywith the service availability at a promotional fare of Rs 2,999 per trip.
AirAsia direct flight from India to Thailand was available from 5 cities -Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata Jaipur and Kochi while apart from newly introduced Bhubaneswar-Bangkok service, another direct flight will also be introduced between Visakhapatnam and Bangkok, flying 4 times a week from tomorrow.
“The aim of the airlines is to make the air travel affordable to everyone. We have started three flights in a week and many places like Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and Korea will also get connected through the AirAsia flight,” said General Manager of AirAsia Group, Suresh Nair.