New aircraft kick off Thai Lion Air's long-haul flight expansion

The first of Thai Lion Air's (TLA) three Airbus wide-body jets arrived in Bangkok on Wednesday to herald its new strategy -- entry into medium- to<br/>long-haul flight services. The arrival of the A330-300, flown straight from Airbus' Toulouse facility, spotlighted TLA's aggressive growth plan that was rolled out a few months ago. TLA is due to take delivery of two other new A330-300s next month, strengthening its fleet of narrow-body aircraft comprising 27 Boeing 737-800s and 737-900ERs. Aswin Yangkirativorn, CE of the budget airline subsidiary of Indonesia's Lion Group, reaffirmed the company's intention to add at least five new B737 MAXs to TLA's fleet next year. TLA will initially deploy its first A330-300 on heavy-traffic Thai domestic routes to cities like Phuket and Chiang Mai on route-proving missions as<br/>required by authorities, perhaps starting as early as next month. Aswin said that the airline expects to start flying its new A330-300s internationally in Q1 next year with PhuketShanghai, currently being served by TLA on a charter basis with B737 aircraft, being the first route on a regular basis. The mission of the A330-300s will be largely to strengthen TLA's Chinese footprint, especially on the cities more distant from Thailand.<br/>