Direct flight to Bangkok from Pune airport on the cards

PUNE: Bangkok Airways, a regional airline in the Thailand capital, is eyeing routes to the city airport, sources in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have said.
The AAI on Sunday posted on social media, “Meeting with officials of Bangkok Airways who are very keen to connect to Pune, Jaipur, Port Blair, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Guwahati..”
They were at the four-day-long World Routes 2019, a global event for airlines, which is currently being held in Adelaide, Australia. Pune airport director Ajay Kumar is a part of the AAI delegation attending the event.
“Talks in this regard are underway. The Pune airport has slots that could be provided to the airline. It will be welcome move for the airport, which has been struggling with international connections,” a source told TOI.
In South East Asia, the Pune airport have no direct international flights. Earlier this year, Kumar had talked about a flight to Bangkok. But there has been no development on the announcement.
Sources said Bangkok Airways could start operations at the city by early next year. “Jet Airways had a code-share agreement with Bangkok Airways, which had been expended last year. However, nothing stands as the airline (Jet) is now grounded. If Bangkok Airways starts operations, flyers from Pune will have a direct connectivity to Bangkok as well as other parts of South East Asia like Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. They are all popular tourist destinations. Over 36,000 people from Pune visited Singapore in 2018 alone,” a source said.