Bangkok Airways, a Thai private airline, has launched direct flights to Bangalore. The airline announced on Tuesday that the Bangkok-Bangalore-Bankgok service commenced from September 26.

“Our Mumbai flight, started in March this year, enjoys load factor of about 70 per cent, and we do hope the Bangalore service also enjoys a similar load factor,” Mr Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, President, Bangkok Airways, told newspersons here.

The IT city has a huge potential, he said, adding that he expected traffic for business and tourism between the two cities to increase.

The airline is also looking at Lucknow - for inward tourists on the Buddhism trail, New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. There are other destinations too on the radar, which the airline plans to service through a code-share agreement, Mr Prasarttong-Osoth said.

According to Bangkok Airways officials, the airline is currently in discussion with Kingfisher Airlines, Finnair, Malaysian Airlines, and SilkAir to operate more code-share flights.

The airline would operate an Airbus 319 aircraft on the Bangalore route, with 120-seat capacity 12 business-class seats and 108 economy-class seats. Initially, it would operate five flights weekly to Bangalore, which will be increased to daily flights from December. In November, the airline plans to introduce business class seats on this route. The inaugural promotional offer on Bangkok Airways booked till October 31 to travel till December 15 would be about Rs 15,300 for economy class and Rs 34,704 for business class.

The flight departs Bangalore at 01.40 hours and arrives at Bangkok at 06.45 hours; on the return, the flight leaves Bangkok at 22.35 hours and arrives at Bangalore at 00.50 hours.