Thai AirAsia

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Thai AirAsia

IATA FD	ICAO AIQ	Callsign THAI ASIA
Founded		8 December 2003
Hubs		Suvarnabhumi Airport
Fleet size		10
Destinations		17
Parent company		Thai AirAsia Co., Ltd.
Headquarters		Bangkok, Thailand
Key people		Mr.Boonklee Plangsiri (chairman)
Website: http://www.airasia.com

Thai AirAsia (Thai: ไทยแอร์เอเชีย) is a joint venture of Malaysian low-fare airline AirAsia (Thai: แอร์เอเชีย) and Thailand's Asia Aviation. It serves AirAsia's regularly scheduled domestic flights and international flights from Bangkok and other cities in Thailand.

1 History
2 Destinations Served
3 Incidents and accidents
4 Fleet
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

Thai AirAsia launched domestic operations on January 13, 2004. It was set up as a joint venture by Shin Corporation and AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes.

Thai AirAsia aircraft and AirAsia aircraft at Don Mueang International Airport

In order to be licensed in Thailand as a domestic carrier, 51% of the company must be owned by Thai shareholders. The sale of Shin Corp. stock in January 2006 by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's family to Singapore's Temasek Holdings put this Thai majority stake in jeopardy.

On February 15, 2006, it was announced that Asia Aviation, a registered Thai company, had taken Shin Corp.'s 50% stake in Thai AirAsia. Asia Aviation is joint venture set up by Shin Corp., which holds 49% of Asia Aviation's shares while 51% is held by Thai investor Sittichai Veerathammanoon.

Fernandes, a Malaysian, owns 49% of Thai AirAsia's shares and Thai AirAsia CEO Tasapon Bijleveld, a Thai national, owns 1%.

[edit] Destinations Served

Thai AirAsia Boarding Pass

The following is the routes served by Thai AirAsia. For an expanded view of destinations by all AirAsia associates, please refer to AirAsia destinations.

See also: AirAsia routes, Indonesia AirAsia routes

[edit] Domestic routes

To/From BANGKOK
	Chiang Mai
	Chiang Rai
	Hat Yai
	Krabi
	Narathiwat
	Phuket
	Surat Thani
	Ubon Ratchathani
	Udon Thani

[edit] International routes

To/From BANGKOK
	Hanoi
	Macau
	Xiamen
	Phnom Penh
	Yangon
	Singapore
	Kuala Lumpur
	Kota Kinabalu
	Penang
	Langkawi (Commenced January, 2007)[1]

[edit] Closed routes

[edit] Incidents and accidents

Thai AirAsia MasterCard

On February 6, 2006 a Thai AirAsia flight from Ubon Ratchathani was delayed for six hours because of a mechanical problem. Local television news reports said passengers reported hearing an explosion aboard flight FD3320 from Bangkok as it was landing at Ubon. Passengers departed the plane as normal and there were no injuries. A maintenance check found a puncture in a right-side rear tire of the landing gear. But as a result of the repair work, the return flight to Bangkok was delayed by six hours, from 4pm to 10pm. ^[1]
On October 7, 2006, a Thai AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Narathiwat had to return to Suvarnabhumi Airport after a panel from the right wing of the Boeing 737-300 had peeled off about 30 minutes into the 9:35 am flight. There were no injuries. The aircraft was repaired and, despite passengers' concerns, they arrived at their destination at around 2:30 pm that day on the same plane. ^[2]