Air India Express has been on an expansion spree. However, as part of its expansion it is seeing multiple hits and misses, a phenomenon which is very common for such rapid expansion. The airline which launched some routes with much fanfare has not been able to sustain them for long. The airline is now making changes to its Bangkok operations starting next month. The airline launched flights to Bangkok on December 20, 2024 with flights from Surat and Pune. The airline scaled up to offer thrice a week service from Amritsar and Pune, and four times a week from Lucknow and Surat.
The airline will add flights to Bangkok from Bengaluru starting October 18, 2025. The flights will operate daily. The airline which has already withdrawn its Amritsar – Bangkok flight, will also withdraw its flight between Lucknow and Bangkok, while increasing the frequency between Pune and Bangkok to Daily. Its flights to Phuket from Hyderabad continue without any change. This is going by the airline’s web booking engine as of today. The airline has done a press release which does not mention these pull outs.
The airline has a monopoly on Surat – Bangkok, while it had competition from Thai AirAsia on the Lucknow – Bangkok sector with Thai AirAsia operating to Don Mueang airport in Bangkok. The Pune – Bangkok sector sees IndiGo operate thrice a week. On the Bengaluru – Bangkok sector this will be the third frequency with IndiGo and Thai Airways being the other two operators flying to Don Mueang.
Network Thoughts
Bengaluru was supposed to be the third hub for parent Air India. The expansion and network rejig over the last few months is an indication that Air India Express is taking over the Bengaluru expansion over Air India, which continues to have a skeletal international presence from Bengaluru.
How long will it take for Air India Express to stabilise its network and move from the new flights and cancellations cycle?
Found this article informative? Think of supporting Network Thoughts with Power of 10
Running this website incurs some cost, along with the data sourced for analytics. If you have liked this article, consider paying INR 10 via UPI. The site will continue to be free. This will help with the maintenance, upkeep and funding the research. You can also pay via Debit or Credit card by clicking on this link.
You can support Network Thoughts by ordering Network Thoughts baggage tags and lapel pins !
Follow NetworkThoughts on X (Formerly Twitter), Bsky, Facebook and YouTube.