Danang municipality does not hide the fact that it is courting thai air carriers to reopen an air service to Bangkok. The route used to serve by small regional carriers until 2008.
HO CHI MINH CITY- Danang City authorities are working with related sides in an endeavor to reopen the air connection between Danang City and Thailand’s Bangkok which has been suspended since 2009, following financial difficulties faced by Thailand regional carrier PB Air –which ceased operations since then.
According to Danang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the local government now is working with Thai Airways, the foreign carrier of the route earlier, as one of the partners. Besides, the city also pins high hopes on the participation of AirAsia as another air service supplier for the same route.
According to VietnamNet, the central coast city’s authorities expect to bring the route back to life late this year or early next year. “The department and travel agencies and hotels will join hands with the Thai carrier to re-open the route. International hotels also expect the number of customers to their hotels to rise thanks to the service resumption,” said Tran Chi Cuong, director of the Travel Management Division under the department.
He explained to local media that local tour operators and hotels will cover part of the total number of tickets to help the carrier offset losses while the carrier will attract foreign visitors for them in return. “We expect to resume the connection late this year or early next year. In preparation, we will launch a road show in Bangkok to introduce the local tourism in October,” Cuong revealed.
Two foreign carriers which are operating regular flights from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and from Singapore to Danang are AirAsia and SilkAir. Since early this year, Danang is also linked up to twice daily to Seoul as well as to Pakse/Savannakhet in Laos (three times weekly).
They are also a higher number of flights to China, in particular to Nanking and Guangzhou as well as Macau. Danang hopes however to revive a direct flight to Hong Kong which used to exist a decade ago. Under an agreement signed with the SAR, Hong Kong tourists in October will be taken to Danang via chartered flights and then the flights will be developed into regular ones.
The city in the year’s first half welcomed nearly 1.33 million travelers, up 9% year-on-year. The airport welcomed last year three million passengers and anticipates 3.5 million air travellers for 2012.
Table- Air seat capacities from Danang, 4th quarter 2012
| Airline | via | Destination | Flights | Seats |
| AK | KUL | 53 | 9 540 | |
| BL | SGN | 368 | 52 532 | |
| KE | ICN | 53 | 7 685 | |
| MI | REP | 35 | 5 000 | |
| MI | SIN | 27 | 3 996 | |
| MI | REP | SIN | 35 | 5 000 |
| MU | NKG | 26 | 4 108 | |
| OZ | ICN | 26 | 4 602 | |
| QV | PKZ | 25 | 1 750 | |
| QV | PKZ | ZVK | 25 | 1 750 |
| VJ | SGN | 184 | 27 784 | |
| VN | BMV | 92 | 6 072 | |
| VN | CAN | 27 | 4 968 | |
| VN | DLI | 92 | 6 072 | |
| VN | HAN | 847 | 154 396 | |
| VN | HGH | 8 | 1 472 | |
| VN | HPH | 92 | 6 072 | |
| VN | MFM | 11 | 2 024 | |
| VN | NHA | 184 | 12 144 | |
| VN | PXU | 65 | 4 290 | |
| VN | SGN | 1 074 | 197 462 | |
| VN | VII | 38 | 2 508 | |
| TOTAL | 3 387 | 521 227 |
Table- ADomestic flights in pale grey (Source: SRS Analyzer)
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
