Thai Smile turns attention to international market, including three routes to India

This is the second part of a report looking at the Thai Airways Group performance from 2012 and outlook for 2013. The first part looked at Thai's mainline operation, which has been impacted by unfavourable economic conditions on long-haul routes and faces increasing competition in Asia. This part looks at Thai Smile, a new hybrid unit that the Thai Airways Group launched in Jul-2012.

2013 will be a key year for Thai Smile as the unit rapidly expands and continues to evolve its hybrid model. Thai Smile is adding five international routes over the next month, giving it a network of six international and seven domestic routes. Several more destinations, primarily international, are expected to be added in 4Q2013.

2013 will also likely see Thai Smile transition from being a unit of Thai Airways to a 100%-owned subsidiary. Thai Smile was launched as a unit because using the Thai Airways operators' certificate (AOC) was seen as a quicker and cheaper solution. But Thai's board is expected to soon approve a proposal to convert Thai Smile into a subsidiary, which would see it apply for its own AOC.