BANGKOK, 17 June 2024 - Thai AirAsia has exercised its Fifth Freedom to carry out an inaugural flight that departed Bangkok (Don Mueang) to stop over in Taiwan and complete and its journey in Japan. Seeing a strong response from passengers, flight Taipei - Okinawa achieved a load factor of 99 percent and arrived to a warm welcoming ceremony.

• Route 1 Don Mueang-Taipei-Okinawa “stops over in Taipei” by departing Bangkok (Don Mueang) at 7.25 hrs to arrive in Taipei at 12.20 hrs, receiving passengers before departing at 13.30 hrs to arrive in Okinawa at 15.55 hrs daily

• Route 2 Don Mueang-Kaohsiung-Tokyo “stops over in Kaohsiung” by departing Bangkok (Don Mueang) at 2.45 hrs to arrive in Kaohsiung at 7.15 hrs, receiving passengers before departing at 8.00 hrs to arrive in Tokyo (Narita) at 12.55 hrs 4 times a week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

Mr. Santisuk Klongchaiya, Chief Executive Officer of Thai AirAsia, made known that after introducing flights with stop overs using the Fifth Freedom right, Thai AirAsia has been able to add more opportunities for flights to Japan’s Tokyo and Osaka. The first of these flights took place today (15 June) and the airline thanks all the airports, tourism bodies and supporting agencies that aided in promoting Thai AirAsia’s Fifth Freedom routes in Taiwan (Taipei and Kaohsiung) and Japan (Tokyo and Osaka), leading to the strong response they received. Connections between Taiwan and Japan were particularly well received, indicating high demand in the market.

“Carrying out stop overs to receive additional passengers is a new challenge for AirAsia but it has provided more opportunities to connect with a wider customer base in both Japan and Taiwan. We inaugurated both Don Mueang-Taipei-Okinawa and Don Mueang-Kaohsiung-Tokyo today and saw a very satisfactory response. We will continue to proactively market this new service” Mr. Santisuk said.  

AirAsia staged a welcoming ceremony for the inaugural flight of the Kaohsiung - Tokyo route, passing out certificates and souvenirs as well as holding an activity at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. AirAsia affirms its readiness to serve flights that are affordable, on time and that meet expected standards.