Thai AirAsia

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Thai AirAsia ไทยแอร์เอเชีย
IATA FD	ICAO AIQ	Callsign THAI ASIA
Founded		8 December 2003
Hubs		Suvarnabhumi Airport
Fleet size		11
Destinations		19
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.

Thai AirAsia is the only low-cost airline operating both domestic and international flights from the Suvarnabhumi International Airport.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Destinations Served 3 Incidents and accidents 4 Fleet 5 See also 6 External links 7 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.

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

For an expanded view of destinations by all AirAsia associates, please refer to AirAsia destinations.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

• 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. ^[2]
• 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. ^[3]

[edit] Fleet

The Thai AirAsia fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of December 2006) ^[4] :

• 11 Boeing 737-300

[edit] See also

• AirAsia
• Indonesia AirAsia
• FlyAsianXpress

[edit] External links

• AirAsia
• Thai AirAsia Fleet Detail
• Thai AirAsia fleet history at Thai-Aviation.net
• Thai AirAsia Passenger Opinions

[edit] References

• Gan, Audrina (February 7, 2006). Is Fernandes readying a pre-emptive strike at Thai AirAsia?, The Edge Daily.
• Mahitthirook, Amornrat (February 7, 2006). Thai AirAsia licence in doubt, Bangkok Post.
• Sritama, Suchat (February 8, 2006) New tie-up for Thai AirAsia. The Nation.
• Kositchotethana, Boonsong (February 16, 2006). "New firm raises nominee question", Bangkok Post.
• De Launey, Guy (February 6, 2006). "Budget flights arrive in Southeast Asia", BBC.