Thai Smile Airways, a budget carrier under Thai Airways’ corporate umbrella, is planning to offer services between Kaohsiung and Bangkok to capitalize on a surge in Thai tourists visiting Taiwan, sources in Thailand said.
If the plan proceeds, it will be the airline’s first route serving Taiwan since it began operations in 2012 and will also break the monopoly on the route held by China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), one of Taiwan’s two biggest carriers.
The service will likely be launched in the second half of this year, but no firm timetable has been set for flights at a time when more Thai tourists are visiting Taiwan, the sources said.
The number of Thai nationals who visited Taiwan last year rose by nearly 60 percent from the previous year to 195,640, helped by a one-year visa-waiver program for Thai visitors that was started in August.
The visa-free treatment, which also covers Brunei nationals, was part of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) efforts to forge closer ties with ASEAN and India as part of the government’s “new southbound policy,” which aims to reduce Taiwan’s economic dependence on China.
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