Bangkok--4 Feb--Thai AirAsia Thai AirAsia, which is celebrating its fourth year anniversary, reported carrying over 10 million guests in its first four years of operations and said that it will focus this year on the continuing upgrade of its fleet and services and on the establishment of a training center for its aeronautical engineers. Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld told media in a press conference that increase in demand for low-fare seats among regional travelers and the reinforcement of Thai AirAsia’s position as the best Thailand-based low-fare airline helped the airline hit the 10-million-guests mark. “The airline’s staff has worked tirelessly and efficiently these past four years to help us open new routes and fly more guests that we have become one of the region’s fastest growing airlines. But for this year, our focus is on the improvement of our services and fleet. This year, we expect to not only be the fastest growing airline but to also be the best airline in terms of service,” he said. This year, five brand new Airbus A320 aircraft will join the airline’s fleet. Another five new Airbus A320 aircraft are scheduled for delivery next year. These aircraft are part of the order placed earlier by the airline for 40 new Airbus A320 aircraft all scheduled for delivery from Toulouse, France by 2012. Mr. Tassapon also announced that the airline will start returning Boeing 737-300 aircraft to their lessors this year as part of its fleet upgrade plan. Thai AirAsia will change its fleet composition from three Airbus A320 and 12 Boeing 737-300 aircraft presently to eight Airbus A320 and seven Boeing 737-300 aircraft by the end of 2008. The new fleet composition will allow the airline to fly more guests with the increased seat capacity available on the new aircraft. Thai AirAsia will also soon open a training center for aeronautical engineers to support the airline’s growth. “After successfully launching our cadet pilot training program with the Bangkok Aviation Center, we are now launching a training program for aeronautical engineers. When we set up the company, we envisioned letting everyone fly comfortably with low fares. After we placed our order for 40 Airbus A320 aircraft, we foresaw that the industry would not be able to supply us with enough pilots, so we worked with Bangkok Aviation Centre to produce our own pilots. We also see the growth of our engineering department with the expansion of our fleet. We will now train our own engineers; they will help us apply our safety first policy. We will start accepting applications to our cadet engineering program this year,” Mr. Tassapon said. He also said of the graduates of the airline’s cadet pilot program, “The 40 cadet pilots in the first group of our program are now our first officers. They have logged more than 600 hours of flight time. In the next five years, all of them will be called captains.” Thai AirAsia flies between Bangkok and the Thai cities of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hat Yai, Krabi, Narathiwat, Phuket, Ranong, Surat Thani, Ubon Ratchathani and Udon Thani. It flies between Bangkok and the international destinations of Singapore, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Yangon, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Macau, Xiamen and Shenzhen. It also has direct flights between Phuket and Singapore. For further information, MEDIA please contact: Desiree Bandal Corporate Communications Executive For International Public Relations Thai AirAsia My Office No. : +662 315 9811 My Email : [email protected]