Bangkok, Thailand, 25 April – Thai airline Bangkok Airways is due to start flying to Macau on 4 July, making it the third airline to offer the Bangkok-Macau route, according to a report in the Bangkok Post.

Bangkok Airways will offer one flight per day joining Air Macau and Thai Air Asia, which already operate the same route.

Thai Air Asia provides 4 flights per day and Air Macau has 10 flights per week.

Bangkok Airways’s chief executive, Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, said that the route was very profitable as the flighst operated with a load factor of around 80 percent.

Figures show that the number of Thai tourists that visited in Macau rose from 57,876 in 2005 (a rise of 38.2 percent on 2004) to 89,448 in 2006 (a 54.5 percent rise) and to 140,749 in 2007 (57.4 percent more).

Official projections point to the number of Thai tourists visiting Macau rising by around 40 percent in 2008.

Philippine Airlines also plans to start flights between Manila and Macau on 1 May.

The airline is planning five flights per week although aims to increase this number at a later date, the company’s spokesman, Rolando Estabillo said.

With the start of flights to Macau, Philippine Airlines will offer 56 weekly flights to five destinations in mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong. (macauhub)