THAI Smile to add regional flights

BANGKOK, April 20 (TNA) - THAI Smile Airways, a low cost airline of Thai Airways International (THAI), the national flag carrier, plans to acquire six more planes to serve international passengers on its expanding routes in the region. Chalongchai Hiranyalekha, an advisor to THAI Smile Airways' commercial executives, told journalists of the update on Monday, noting that the Thai budget airline plans to launch new routes to Yangon and Mandalay in Myanmar, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, and Hyderabad in India. Chalongchai said THAI Smile Airways also plans to increase flights on its 10 existing routes, nine of which are domestic ones and the rest is the Bangkok-Macau route. According to the advisor, the six new passenger planes, once acquired, will increase THAI Smile Airways' aircraft fleet to 20, from 14 Airbus A320 planes currently, to meet rising passengers' demand for both domestic and international flights. The advisor projected that THAI Smile Airways should serve over 3.8 million international passengers in 2015 alone, prompting the budget airline to now launch a new 24-hour booking service for its air tickets through all branches nationwide of 7-Eleven convenient store. (TNA)