The budget airline served 4.4 million passengers and had a load factor of 88 per cent, up 5 percentage points from the same period last year, with a fleet of 47 Airbus A320s.

The airline added 10 flight routes, both domestic and international, in the first four months of the year. One notable addition was its first direct flight from Thailand to Laos, completing Thai AirAsia’s coverage of the CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) countries.

Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of AAV and an executive of Thai AirAsia, said the airline focused on adding more routes in order to maintain the airline’s leadership both domestically and internationally. He said the company’s efforts, coupled with the stable political situation in Thailand and its effects on the tourism sector, led AAV to achieve very satisfactory results.

|Second quarter

For the second quarter and the rest of the year, Thai AirAsia says it will maintain its targets of serving 17 million passengers, increasing its fleet to 50 aircraft and adding even more routes.

The airline says it plans to leverage its extensive network to offer a larger variety of routes from its six hubs to penetrate both the tourist and commercial markets further and use new technologies to manage its costs efficiently.

Bangkok Airways yesterday also announced its operating results |for the first quarter. Revenue |was Bt7.77 billion, increasing from the same quarter last year by 15.5 per cent and it reported a net profit of Bt1.57 billion, up by 44.9 per cent.

Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of the airline, said the improving performance was mostly contributed by growth in the number of passengers and better average fare income, together with declining fuel costs.

The number of passengers carried by Bangkok Airways in the quarter rose by 10.5 per cent. The number of passengers from points-of-sale in Asia (excluding Thailand) grew by 18.2 per cent, largely supported by increases in Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Myanmar and Taiwan.

The average passenger load factor increased from 71.9 per cent in the same quarter last year to 74.4 per cent. Passenger yield per kilometre was Bt5.44, up by 4.5 per cent.

The airline recently took delivery of three brand-new aircraft, consisting of two ATR 72-600s and one Airbus A319. Bangkok Airways’ fleet now consists of 33 planes: 13 ATR 72-500s and ATR 72-600s and 20 Airbus A319s and A320s.

Two or three more planes will|be delivered to the company this year.

This is part of Shopee’s promotion of its mobile marketplace application in Thailand. Its other markets, besides Singapore itself, are Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Terence Pang, regional managing director of Shopee Singapore, said the company aimed to make Thailand one of its top three marketplaces in the next few years after launching the service here last month.

Its application runs on a website and on iOS and Android mobile phones.

Its most popular products are clothes, cosmetics and electronics. The app includes a payment channel.

Thailand Post said it delivered around 20,000 EMS (Express Mail Service) parcels daily for Shopee members during the initial launch of the service, out of a total of 700,000 EMS deliveries a day.

Pang said Shopee expected around 30-per-cent growth in Thailand deliveries by its members this year.

Revenue boost expected

Thailand Post president Smorn Terdthampiboon said the cooperation with Shopee would boost the Thai company’s EMS revenue by around 20 per cent this year.

For the first quarter this year, Thailand Post reported Bt6.249 billion in total revenue and Bt5.248 billion in total expenditure.

This year the company fore|casts Bt24 billion in revenue, compared with Bt22 billion last year, and profit of Bt3 billion, up from |Bt2.5 billion in 2015. The higher revenue is attributed to the growth of the e-commerce market.

She said more international cruise operators were adding Thailand as a new destination linking with other countries such as Singapore and Australia. At least four ports are welcoming foreign cruise ships: Phuket, Krabi, Koh Samui, and Laem Chabang Deep Seaport.

“It’s not only international lines heading into Thailand. In fact, some Thai investors own cruise lines and operate overseas, |often embarking at ports here,” she said.

According to the Cruise Lines International Association, there are 238 cruise liners globally, operated by three major groups, mostly based in the United States. The CLIA said 23 million customers worldwide spent their vacations on cruises last year, up from 17 million in 2009 and representing annual growth of 7 per cent.

There are 980 ports for cruise ships but most of the famous ones are in the Caribbean and North America.

In Thailand, international cruise liners made port 374 times last year, carrying 579,000 passengers. Of that number, 303 ships were in transit, 12 were turn-arounds, and 59 were overnight stays.

A total of 81 per cent of the |liners landed in Phuket and the |rest went to Koh Samui, Krabi |or Laem Chabang.

“The cruise business in Thailand grew by 28 per cent between 2014 and 2015 and the future is expected to be just as bright. However, the biggest problem in Thailand is the lack of good ports. It we could have ports as good as in other countries, we could be a hub for cruises,” Yuphawan said.

The CLIA also reported that eight to 12 new cruise ships were delivered worldwide each year, which means more market demand on the horizon. China alone is expected to drive huge growth in Asia over next five to 10 years.|Some liners will serve only the China market.

Yuphawan said Sripatum University had created a cruise-onboard-service curriculum two years ago, teaching a full range of services such as reception, dining, housekeeping, bars, photography, public relations, foreign languages, Thai and international hospitality and imperative requirements such as seamanship.

Each student requires a budget of Bt200,000 for the whole |programme, but graduates can earn high incomes, she said.

From May 16, all banks will issue chip-based debit cards to new customers. People who now use magnetic-stripe cards can contact their banks to change to the new system without paying the normal card-replacement fee of Bt100.

Thaweelarp Rittapirom, director and executive vice president of BBL, said that from next Monday, the bank would give priority to the Be1st Smart TPN UnionPay card instead of the Bt1st Visa debit card to both new and existing customers who want to use a chip-based card.

The benefit of domestically issued TPN debit cards is a 0.75-per-cent merchant fee, encouraging small merchants to accept debit cards. Holders of TPN debit cards will be required to use a six-digit personal identification number (PIN) when they make a payment.

The Be1st Smart TPN UnionPay will be BBL’s prototype card under the new system. After that, the bank will apply the TPN standard to the Be1st Smart Rabbit Siriraj and Be1st Smart Rabbit cards.

The annual fee for BBL’s debit cards is usually Bt300, but the bank has reduced it to Bt200 until June 30 to encourage people to use debit cards. Thaweelarp said it might keep the annual fee of Bt200 for the Be1st Smart TPN UnionPay card. Each year, BBL issues around 2 million debits card, and from now on most will be Be1st Smart TPN UnionPay cards.

The bank has a total of 16 million debit cards in circulation, of which 6 million are microchip-based. BBL became the first Thai bank to launch chip cards in May 2009, but they can only make cash withdrawals from Bangkok Bank’s own automated teller machines because no other banks in Thailand have launched chip cards.

Thaweelarp said the bank’s customers would be able to withdraw money from other banks’ ATMs from Monday onwards after all banks implement a chip-card standard and their ATMs have been adjusted to accommodate all microchip-based debit cards.

He said debit cards had not been widely used until now because of the unattractive merchant fees. However, after the merchant fee is reduced to 0.75 per cent, such transactions should gradually increase.

Shoke na Ranong, chairman of TPN, said merchants at present had to pay fees of 1.5-2.5 per cent because debit-card transactions had to be processed internationally until now.

Holders of TPN debit cards must spend at least Bt30 per transaction, and if the transaction is over Bt300, they will receive a text alert from their bank, he said.

The technology for the TPN system is provided by China UnionPay International (UPI), a global payment network with the largest cardholder base in the world.

Ready to talk to Visa, MasterCard

TPN is ready to talk with Visa or MasterCard on whether they want to join the Thai Payment Network. TPN is also open to non-banks and telecom companies to be members and issue their own chip-based debit cards.

TPN is a joint venture between UPI and a group of Thai commercial banks, with BBL as a primary shareholder. Kasikornbank, Krungthai Bank and Siam Commercial Bank have signed agreements expressing their interest in holding TPN shares.

The government will work with universities to create a digital cluster so that Thailand will be the digital gateway in the region, he said.

Huawei’s establishment of its RHQ here will create confidence for other businesses to run their operations in the country, Somkid said.

The company will transfer technology and help leverage human resources in the country.

The government will also sign a memorandum of understanding with Huawei as a partner to drive the digital industry here. The agreement will be signed by the end of this month, he said.

Wang Yifan, managing director of Huawei Technologies (Thailand), said the company would set up a team to cover the collaboration with the government.

The inauguration ceremony also covered the opening of Huawei’s well-appointed Customer Solution Innovation and Integration Experience Centre (CSIC) and its Training Centre.

All three facilities, occupying 4,380 square metres of space, are located in GPF Wireless Towers on Wireless Road.

Nineteen years after establishing a presence in Thailand, Huawei says it reaffirmed its choice of Bangkok as the site of its new RHQ for several reasons.

First, it considered the importance of the Thai market and its current endeavour towards a digital economy.

Second, it saw the Kingdom’s ideal strategic position as a gateway to neighbouring markets.

Third, it took into account the Thais’ enthusiasm for innovation and new technologies.

Last, it benefited from the full support of Thailand’s governmental organisations, in particular the Board of Investment in its campaign to promote the setting up of international headquarters.

“This is really a win-win situation for all parties,” said David Sun, president and chief executive officer of Huawei Southeast Asia.

“We firmly believe that Thailand has the capacity to become the ICT hub of the region, and we will provide our full support to help the country reach this goal,” he said, referring to information and communications technology.

“The business environment is great, while the economic, technological and digital potential of the country is enormous.

“We will continue to work in close cooperation with the government, the ICT industry and all sectors of society to bring sustainable progress,” he said.

The CSIC aims to be an instrumental tool for the development of Thailand’s digital economy and to help the country achieve its objective to become the region’s ICT hub.

Huawei says its CSIC is a global network of dedicated and global innovative, state-of-the-art experience labs that allow interested parties to experience, architect, validate and build ICT solutions and applications.

The showcase at CSIC aggregates more than 120 global reference applications and services from Huawei’s clients and research and development labs ranging from 4K video and the Internet of Things to national broadband.

This CSIC built in Bangkok serves the region’s interested parties, the company said. It offers three values for visitors – a window into global best practice, a centre of idea exchange and business-solution innovation, and a platform to develop ICT ecosystems.

People can also experience Huawei Enterprise Business’ innovative solutions such as Safe City and the latest Huawei smartphone and wearable products in the region.

The Huawei Training Centre has been designed to provide ICT solutions and services to the company’s three customer groups – Thai consumers, global carriers and various industries.

It comprises five multifunction classrooms, with a total capacity of more than 100 people, and is equipped with Visual Live and audio systems for diverse activities like conferences and workshops.

There are also two laboratories for wireless, core network and network purposes, a cafeteria and a library corner.

“The opening of these three new facilities is the culmination of our dream, which was to have here in Thailand a comprehensive showcase where we can welcome and serve all our customers, from individual consumers to IT professionals, professors and students, from industry users to global carriers and state enterprises,” Sun said.