2.3 million arrivals a month expected March

THE country can expect an average of 2.3 million foreign arrivals per month until March next year, according to the winter flight schedule posted by the Official Airlines Guide (OAG).

The OAG estimates Thailand will see 573,538 international visitors per week over the winter schedule (October 2022-March 2023).

It forecasts that most international passengers landing in Thailand this winter will be from South-East Asia (211,744 passengers per week), followed by Northeast Asia (175,588 per week), South Asia (66,877 per week), Europe (56,354 per week), and the Middle East (44,990 per week).

OAG’s passenger estimate for the winter season is 74.2 per cent higher than figures for summer, which saw a weekly average of 329,288 arrivals, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governor Yuthasak Supasorn said on Thursday.

TAT also expects more visitors from distant markets to land in Thailand thanks to new routes, notably Air Austral’s Reunion Island-Bangkok service, which expects to carry around 280 passengers per flight twice a week.

Reunion Island is a French territory in the Indian Ocean with over 800,000 people comprising mainly high-worth seniors and families, said Yuthasak. Meanwhile, Oman Air will increase its Paris-Muscat-Bangkok service to five flights per week from Dec 20.

Air France will increase flights on its Paris-Bangkok route to five per week from November and then to seven per week from January. —The Nation/ANN