The sky is the limit for low-cost carriers (LCCs) that have made their presence felt even more deeply in Thailand.
Thai AirAsia's fleet of Airbus 320 jetliners line up at Don Mueang airport, Thailand's LCC hub. The airline, with 40 A320s in service, accounts for more than half of all traffic through Bangkok's old airport.
No-frills carriers have been aggressively expanding their footprint in the country's airline business in such a way that they will soon take a lion's share from full-service operators.
Latest traffic figures sourced from Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) served to underscore LCCs' rising profile.
Last year, LCCs carried 39.97 million passengers through the kingdom's six main airports, up by 23.42% from 2013.
They were also responsible for 247,922 aircraft movements — take-offs and landings — through airports including Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang in 2014, a year-on-year increase of 25.1%.
Those statistics mean that LCCs accounted for 44% of overall passenger throughput and 39.7% for entire aircraft movements.
The percentages were higher than the levels in 2013 when budget airlines' passenger share was just above 32% and aircraft movements stood at 34%.
In 2013, budget airlines handled 28.3 million passengers and 198,226 aircraft movements.
Last year, LCCs sharply increased their domestic passenger numbers to 23.8 million, up 31.8%, while raising international passenger traffic by 8.75% to 11.18 million.
LCCs' domestic and international aircraft movements shared a similar pattern, with domestic movements surging 33% to 168,272 and international movements increasing 11% to 79,650.
It is a foregone conclusion in the aviation industry that LCCs, with a zero presence in Thailand 13 years ago, will continue to expand by leaps and bounds in Thailand, continuing to diminish the role of legacy airlines.
LCCs are making flying more and more affordable and convenient over a wider route spectrum as passengers support the way they operate. More budget airlines are expected to flock into Thailand to tap growing air passenger traffic, spurred by the country's all-important tourism industry, in the coming years.
Towards the end of last year, 24 LCCs, both Thai and international, were flying in and out of AoT-operated airports.
V Air, the no-frills subsidiary of Taiwan's TransAsia Airways, was the latest LCC to descend to Thailand, with an inaugural flight from Taipei to Bangkok on Dec 17 followed by one to Chiang Mai on Jan 7.
In the first half of this year, at least two new entrants, Thai VietJet and NokScoot, are due to join budget air travel market.
Existing LCCs, including Thai AirAsia, Thai Asia X, Nok Air and Thai Lion Air, will ramp up their capacity and frequencies, raising LCCs' share of the country's airline business.
Their share looks set to grow in tandem with the strong rebound in air passenger traffic through Thailand alongside a tourism recovery.
Analysts at Thanachart Securities see improved optimism, revising the growth forecast for passenger traffic through AoT-operated airports in 2015 to 17%, up from 9.9% it projected earlier.
Their counterparts at Bualuang Securities were more conservative, projecting 10% growth for both passenger and aircraft traffic.
Overall passengers passing through AoT airports rose 2.53% last year to 90.5 million, attributed largely to the end of political turbulence after months of damaging street protests.
Thanachart said its revision was based on the recent actual traffic trend that despite martial law, seen by some as a deterrent, international passenger numbers grew in the last quarter of 2014.
This was not only supported by a recovery of Asian tourists but also outbound Thai tourists after the emergence of medium-haul low-cost carriers such as Thai AirAsia X, according to Thanachart.