Bangkok to become regional hub

India-based Jet Airways’ business strategy in 2018 will focus on Asia with a plan to open more new routes in the region, including in Thailand.
The airline plans to increase its local business and will take possession of 75 new Boeing 737 jets from June 2018 until 2020, according to Colin Neubronner, the airline’s senior vice presidentcommercial for Asia Pacific and Southeast Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
“Asia is showing aggressive growth in travel compared with others regions. Up to 33 per cent of our international routes will come from the Asia market. This is the reason that we will expand our new Asian routes next year,” he said.
Neubronner added that the company plans to increase its flights through Bangkok from its current five daily flights (three to Mumbai and two to New Delhi). There would also be new routes through Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Philippines (Manila), Indonesia (Jakarta) and China (Shanghai). 
Neubronner said that Thailand would be its regional hub and act as a gateway to the CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam) and the company plans to increase its flights from Bangkok to Mumbai and New Delhi from next June.

Thai flights now at near capacity
Passenger occupancy (the “load factor”) between Bangkok and Mumbai/New Delhi reached 85 per cent in the first half of this year, highlighting a need for more flights in and out of Thailand. The company is also collaborating with other airlines to help those passengers transferring to CLMV countries, Neubronner said.
 Jet Airways currently operates international flights to 65 domestic and international destinations with a fleet of 112 planes.