No-frills carriers' penetration of Thailand's overall airline market has continued to soar, with no sign of easing in sight.
During the first quarter of this year, low-cost carriers (LCCs) boosted their share of total passenger traffic passing through the six main airports operated by the Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) to just under 44%, compared with 41.7% in the same period last year.
LCCs' share of overall aircraft movements through AoT airports shot up to 46.7% in the January-March period, versus 41.9% a year ago.
Figures sourced from AoT, which handles the bulk of Thailand's air traffic, showed that budget airlines transported 15.1% more passengers in the first quarter to a record-high 15.7 million, up from 13.5 million in the previous quarter.
Those airlines also boosted their take-offs and landings by 18% to 98,613, up from 82,972 quarter-on-quarter.
LCCs grew their international passenger traffic by 12.4% in the first quarter of this year to 5.49 million.
They also increased their domestic passenger volumes by 16.6% to 10.2 million, representing about two-thirds of the total.
During the first quarter, LCCs further boosted their aircraft movements domestically by 23.5% to 66,364.
LCCs' international aircraft movements grew 8.1% to 32,249.
Overall passenger throughput by both full-service and discount airlines totalled 34.9 million in the first quarter, up by 8%.
Aircraft movements in the first quarter of 2017 rose 6.64% to 211,054, compared with growth of 9.47% registered in first quarter of last year to 197,913.
By comparison, the first quarter of last year saw a 13.7% rise in passenger traffic over the previous year to 32.3 million.
Overall traffic growth was held back somewhat by reduced arrivals from China -- Thailand's number one foreign tourist source market -- due to a clampdown on tour scams during July-August last year.
Combined international passenger traffic through those airports rose 4.9% in the first quarter to 19.6 million while domestic numbers were up 12.1% to 15.3 million.
