Hot completion on routes to Malaysia

BANGKOK, 6 July 2012: Thailand and  Malaysia share an abundance of air links not only between the capital cities, but also between provincial tourist destinations. Here are the best of the fare options between the two countries.

To Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok, there are five airline offering services: Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways International, Lufthansa, Thai AirAsia and AirAsia.

Low-cost sisters, AirAsia and Thai AirAsia offer the most frequency; eight flights daily. Outside their promotional periods, fares start from Bt6,370.

Malaysia’s national carrier, Malaysia Airlines operate four flights daily on the same route selling economy class fares from Bt9,350 while its business class fares, from Bt20,990. Hardly competitive as the service is not superior to the Air Asia twins. It does throw in a bigger bag allowance.

Thai Airways International under cuts its full-service rival quoting a lower fare of Bt8,595 and Bt18,805 for economy and business class respectively based on its 52nd Anniversary campaign that is running until the end of September.

Lufthansa sells an economy seat at Bt4,370 beating the best of low-cost airlines while its business seat sells at  Bt12,905. This is definitely the unbeatable bargain on the route  but it only offers four weekly flights as an extension of its daily service to Bangkok from Germany. The other three flights extend to Ho Chi Minh City. If the service out of Germany is delayed you have a problem.

There are also adequate air links to Kuala Lumpur from Phuket, Krabi, Hat Yai, Samui and Chiang Mai on a variety of airlines.

From Phuket, services are offered by Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia. Malaysia Airlines flies twice daily selling a fare at Bt6,160 for an economy seat and Bt14,760 in business. Meanwhile, AirAsia which has four daily flights has a lead-in fare of Bt4,730.

From Krabi, Hat Yai and Chiang Mai, only AirAsia offers daily flights from the southern towns and 10 flights weekly from Chiang Mai. The starting fares are Bt5,570, Bt3,610 and Bt6,330 respectively.

From Samui, Bangkok Airways operates a daily service to Kuala Lumpur with the lowest fare at Bt7,270.

Besides the capital city, there are flights to Penang as well. THAI has a daily service to the island quoting Bt7,895 for economy class and Bt16,575, business class.

Thai AirAsia, also has a daily service with a lead-in fare of  Bt5,260.

Firefly, Malaysia’s commuter airline  owned by Malaysia Airlines links Phuket and Penang, four times a week. Fares start from RM545 or around Bt5,450.

It also links Samui and Subang Airport, about 50 km from Kuala Lumpur with daily flights. The fares start from RM810 or around Bt8,100.

In August, the carrier will commence two new routes: Penang-Samui from 11 August (three weekly) and Subang-Hat Yai from 17 August (four weekly). The fares are already available at RM398 (Bt3,980), out of Samui and RM505 (Bt5,050) out of  Hat Yai.

All fares are subject to availability and changes due to currency fluctuations.