The budget carrier Thai Lion Air (TLA) is embarking on a new phase of expansion that was not on its radar screen by launching feeder services using non-jet aircraft.
The ATR 72-600, seen here in the livery of Malaysian carrier Malindo Air, will be used by Thai Lion Air to launch feeder services.
TLA, part of Indonesia's gigantic Lion Group, intends to start scheduled flights from its newly created hub in Hat Yai to Kuala Lumpur (Subang airport), Medan in Indonesia, Surat Thani and Hua Hin next month.
A brand-new ATR 72-600 turboprop, with seating capacity for 72 passengers, has been spared by Lion Group, which has 60 of such aircraft, to serve TLA's four initial secondary routes, senior TLA executives told the Bangkok Post.
TLA is seeking opportunities on top of its trunk routes to meet Civil Aviation Department requirements.
The department requires licensed airlines to operate domestic flights to serve not only major cities such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai but also other provinces with less traffic.
TLA's launch of feeder services comes as TLA presses ahead with a plan to expand its fleet of Boeing 737-900ER jets for trunk route services in the coming months despite subdued air travel demand caused by Thailand's political turmoil.
The airline plans to take delivery of two B737-900ER jets in March and four more in April to support its regional and domestic network growth, adding to two such jets that have been in operation since TLA's debut last month.
From Hat Yai in Songkhla province, TLA plans to offer four flights a week to Subang, three to Medan, three to Surat Thani and five to Hua Hin.
The airline opted to use a turboprop as demand on those routes is not large enough to justify the deployment of the B737-900ER, which can carry 215 passengers.
Like other airlines operating in Thailand, TLA has been hit by the political tensions in Bangkok that seemed to escalate after the caretaker government declared a state of emergency in the capital last Wednesday.
TLA executives said load factors on its two international routes _ from Bangkok to Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur _ have recently dwindled to just about half of the aircraft's seating capacity.
But its sole domestic route, Bangkok-Chiang Mai, has still fared well, achieving a load factor of up to 90% even though bookings are slipping by 10%, they said.
"We may need to cut back some frequencies for existing routes if demand continues to drop, but that depends on how much more fallout the Bangkok shutdown will produce," one TLA executive said.