Thai Smile Airline, the up-coming budget wing of Thai Airways, has announced its first destination: Macau. Direct flights from Bangkok to Macau will begin on July 1, 2012. The initial schedule will see two flights per day and ticket sales will begin in April.
Thai Smile will take delivery of its first aircraft in June 2012 and will begin operations shortly after. Chokchai Panyayong, the Thai Airways Executive Vice President for Strategy and Business Development, has said that the pilots and crew are ready.
Thai Smile is expected to have a fleet of four aircraft by summer 2012. Planned routes for August 1 launch are Bangkok – Chiang Mai and Chiang Mai – Phuket and international routes from Bangkok to Jakarta, Kolkata and Phnom Penh. By winter 2012 Thai Smile will take over Thai Airway’s flights Surat Thani and to Gaya and Varanasi, India.
