The city will have one more flight route to Thailand from November, Calcutta airport and travel industry sources said on Monday.
Thai Vietjet Air, a subsidiary of Vietnam-based low-cost airline Vietjet Air, is scheduled to launch Calcutta-Bangkok flights from the middle of November, sources said. The airline would operate the flights four days a week, the sources added.
According to the sources, a round-trip fare between Calcutta and Bangkok would be around ₹18,000.
Tour operators said the new flight is already showing in their systems, and seats have started selling from Monday.
“Thailand has always been the highest-selling international sector from Calcutta. The demand for the sector is increasing further because of the recent international crisis,” said Anil Punjabi, national committee member of Travel Agents Federation of India, representing eastern region.
“People are now looking for international destinations closer to their homes,” he said.
According to officials of Tourism Authority of Thailand, the visa-free entry facility for Indians to the country has increased tourist footfall.
Thailand has introduced the visa-free entry facility for Indian tourists on November 10, 2023. Initially, it was for 30 days, but now it has been extended to 60 days.
In 2019, 1.97 million Indians visited Thailand. The number went up to 2.12 million in 2024. According to officials, till June this year, 1.2 million Indians have visited Thailand from India.
According to officials, 8 to 10 per cent of Indian visitors are from Calcutta and surrounding areas.
Thailand’s tourism authorities are now promoting unexplored destinations like Nan and Lampang, both cities in northern Thailand.
“We are focusing on hidden gems that we have. There are cities in northern Thailand with culture and history, which we want tourists to explore,” Thapanee Kiatphaibool, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), had said in June at Thailand Travel Mart Plus in Chiang Mai, in the northern part of the country.