Now, fly to Bangkok at never before rates

CHENNAI: Kancheepuram is just as fascinating as Mahabalipuram, but hardly anybody knows about it, said Chanchai Charanvatnakit, Consul General of the Royal Thai Consulate General. “Now, maybe more people from my country will get a taste of your saris,” joked the Chennai-based-diplomat. When the world’s Best Low-Cost Airline for three years running, AirAsia (certified by Skytrax) introduces five flights a week between Bangkok and Chennai, it goes without saying that tourism is going to get a big boost upward. “Usually, a lot of tourists from Thailand go further North because there are places of Buddhist importance there, but now Chennai will be on the tourist radar,” he added.Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of AirAsia’s new low-cost Chennai-Bangkok-Chennai run on Friday, he also revealed that this would be a big boon for building business ties between the countries. “We are looking at increasing the trade margin between India and Thailand from USD 8.5 billion to USD 14 billion in the next three years,” he said. It will be vital to increase the opportunity of FDI in India from abroad, to have cheap, efficient and no frills air services, he added.If you’ve always fancied a trip to Bangkok but have never had the funds for an ‘international’ trip, go online now. With a one way net fare (fuel, tax et al) of `3999 to Bangkok on offer till March 15, it really cannot get cheaper than this. Using this promotional offer the airline is looking at filling up close to 80 percent of their Airbus A320 flights that can seat up to 180 passengers, per trip.What after the offer? “Well, we cannot disclose the proposed regular fare at the moment, but we can assure that it will be 20-30 percent lower than any other airline, said Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO — AirAsia.