Dubai-based carrier flydubai will add a second daily flight to Bangkok‘s Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) from July 18, just over two weeks after launching the route, the airline said on July 16.
The rapid frequency increase points to how quickly Gulf carriers are moving to capture summer traffic on secondary Southeast Asian gateways, with Don Mueang offering a lower-cost alternative to Suvarnabhumi and easier access to central Bangkok. Combined with a step-up in Krabi services from four weekly flights to daily, flydubai will operate up to 21 weekly flights to Thailand.
“Just weeks after welcoming Bangkok as our latest destination, we are pleased to build on the strong demand for this route by introducing a second daily flight from Dubai,” said Sudhir Sreedharan, Divisional Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at flydubai. “Don Mueang International Airport offers convenient access to central Bangkok, making it an attractive option for customers looking to make the most of their time in the city, especially during the busy summer travel period.”
Flights operate from Terminal 3 at Dubai International (DXB) under the flydubai and Emirates codeshare, which gives passengers single-ticket itineraries, through baggage check-in and access to a combined network of more than 240 destinations.
Return Business Class fares from Dubai start at AED12,000 ($3,270), with Economy Class Lite from AED2,600 ($710). From Bangkok, return Business Class fares start at THB91,000 and Economy Class Lite at THB21,000.
The daily Don Mueang service launched on July 1. flydubai has also recently started flights to Benghazi in Libya and will begin serving Aleppo in Syria from July 20 and Pokhara in Nepal from September 23.
Passengers travel on Boeing 737 aircraft, with lie-flat seats in Business Class following a cabin retrofit programme across the fleet.
Why it matters for the trade
The speed of the doubling matters more than the capacity itself. flydubai went from route launch to a second daily rotation in 17 days, which suggests load factors on the inaugural service ran well ahead of plan rather than that the airline had always intended a staged ramp-up. For agents and tour operators building Dubai stopover product, that is a signal that Don Mueang is pulling traffic the Suvarnabhumi services were not.