Air India is reintroducing its Kolkata-Bangkok flight this Durga Puja, the airline announced on Wednesday.
Thai Airways is set to replace the Thai Smile flight on the Kolkata-Bangkok route, promising onwards connectivity from Thailand to other countries.
Air India will introduce a direct flight between Kolkata and Bangkok starting October 23, according to a statement from the airline.
AI322 will depart Kolkata at 10pm to reach Bangkok at 2.05am (local time). The return flight, AI321, will take off from Bangkok at 3.05am (local time) to land in Kolkata at 4.10am.
“The flight, operated with a narrow body Airbus family aircraft, will have a two-class configuration of economy and business and operate six days a week from Monday to Saturday,” said the statement.
Tour operators said this is the only flight between Kolkata and Bangkok at present that will have a business class. They said the introductory minimum return fare offered by Air India is Rs 20,000 for the economy class.
The average return fare offered by other airlines in the sector is around Rs 30,000 for the economy class, they said.
Bookings for the flight have opened.
“The direct service to Bangkok will offer a unique opportunity to Air India passengers to take convenient connections via Bangkok to and from 10 popular destinations in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia on the network of Bangkok Airways, with whom Air India enjoys an interline partnership,” said the airline’s statement.
Thai Airways is set to replace the Thai Smile flight between Kolkata and Bangkok, said tour operators. The 168-seat aircraft will operate daily from October 15. Thai Smile is a subsidiary of Thai Airways.
Travel agents said Thailand is back on Kolkata’s travel map since 2022.
Tour operators said there is a high demand for Thailand this Puja.
“Thailand has always been an evergreen sector from Kolkata,” said Anil Punjabi, national committee member of the Travel Agents Federation of India, representing east.