Thai AirAsia will take delivery of five new Airbus A320 planes this year, growing its fleet to 45 aircraft and allowing it to increase flight frequencies and routes.
Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld revealed the acquisition on Thursday. He said the new planes would serve the airline's plan to increase flight frequencies and launch new domestic and international routes as tourism was to grow 15-20% from last year.
He said the cabin factor of the airline rose from 70% last year to 80% in the first quarter of this year and the trend would continue in the first half of 2015. He expected the airline to meet its passenger target of 14.5 million this year.
So far in 2015, the airline has launched four new domestic routes from Bangkok to Nan, Loei, Roi Et and Buri Ram and will introduce two more local routes and some others to Nepal, India and China, Mr Tassapon said.
"Domestic markets are recovering faster than expected as travellers start to get used to political problems. More than 90% of seats have been reserved for the Songkran festival."
"Chinese people who form a big foreign market are gradually coming back and their traffic is close to that in 2013. Without an untoward incident, aviation business will grow. If the martial law imposition is lifted, it will even expand more," he said.