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AirAsia scraps Bangkok-JB route, again

BANGKOK, May 28 — AirAsia is stopping its Bangkok-Johor Baru route beginning July this year, the second time it is taking such measures.

 

In an email to passengers who have booked flights from July onwards, the budget carrier said AK5632 from Senai and the returning AK5633 would be cancelled, state news agency Bernama reported.

 

In February 2008, AirAsia resumed its Bangkok-Johor Baru route with four flights a week, flying on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

 

It had intended to be the first destination in Thailand from Johor Baru, targeting Johoreans, Singaporeans and those flying into the city from Sabah and Sarawak, but a low load factor forced AirAsia to scrap the route.

 

Currently, AirAsia and its Thai subsidiary, Thai AirAsia, operate seven flights daily from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, as well as serving Krabi, Phuket and Chiang Mai, on top of the Penang-Bangkok route.

 

The Bangkok-Langkawi and Bangkok-Kota Kinabalu services were discontinued in 2007 due to low passenger load too.

 

The budget carrier is due to announce first quarter results for 2009 today. – Bernama

Oh dear ! :(

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Oh dear ! :(

There is nothing surprising about this move lah.

 

As much as we want Senai to be connected to various international cities, ask yourself how much people really do fly out of there? And while the push to target Singaporeans to fly out from Senai, until the notorious Causeway jams can be sorted out, we can be assured that numbers from the island down south will continue to be few and far in between. Of the times I have flown out of JHB on MH, none of those trips did we have a full load on the shuttle bus leaving from Singapore. In fact, all those rides had loads less than half full.

 

An airport's success is also tied to the economic development of the city it serves. Until IDR takes off (and that is a BIG "if"), Senai will probably remain the way it is.

 

 

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Jeez, why would anyone wants to fly out from Senai. I went Senai once only to get to Singapore. Now got direct flight from BKI.

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It's not surprising, especially since Air Asia can now operate pretty much from anywhere in Malaysia / Thailand / Indonesia to Singapore. IIRC in the past JB was all about the getting to Singapore for cheaper than the expensive full service carriers (MH / SQ). Now that they are able to operate into SIN pretty much unrestricted and opening routes up quickly, it's not surprising to see them put their efforts into Singapore as it's more valuable to them compared with JB.

 

Alex.

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