AirAsia Drops Direct Phuket Vietnam Flights
Thai AirAsia has announced that its direct Phuket to Ho Chi Minh Flights has been discontinued, citing low load factors. Additionally the Medan Indonesia direct service has also been dropped.
At the same time increases in of domestic routes to Chiang Mai and Udon Thani are being added. Internationally the airline is looking to expand into India in the near future as tourism demand is growing.
Low cost carrier routes remain inherently more volatile then legacy or national carriers as the budget airlines have to view profit margins and maximize aircraft utilization. Here today and gone tomorrow is often an applicable tagline as consumer demand changes.
No announcement has been made on direct flights between Bali and Phuket which for many make absolute sense in terms of destination synergies.