950819

JAL, Thai Airways

to expand

joint flights

TOKYO: Japan Airlines and Thai Airways International have agreed to expand their joint flights between the two countries to meet growing demand, the Japanese economic daily Nihon Keizai reported Saturday.

They plan to increase the number of joint flights between Japan and Thailand by seven-fold to 21 a week in November and inaugurate a joint Bangkok-New Delhi service by using Thai Airways equipment as early as mid-1996, the report said.

At present, they operate three joint flights a week on the Nagoya-Bangkok route.

As part of the plan, the two airlines will add two routes - Osaka (Kansai International Airport)-Bangkok and Fukuoka-Bangkok - to their joint services.

Two flights a day will be made available on the Osaka-Bangkok route with the two airlines combining their separate once-daily flights, the newspaper said.

Thai Airways will increase from two to three the number of its weekly flights between Fukuoka and Bangkok and operate them jointly with Japan Airlines.

The existing three weekly joint flights between Nagoya and Bangkok will be increased to four with the two firms equally sharing equipment, the newspaper said. Thai Airways has been providing equipment for the joint service which was launched in 1988.-AFP