Thai Smile stops flying

On 31 December 2023, Thai Smile conducted its final flights. As of 1 January 2024, all flights and aircraft have now been merged into Thai Airways'-operations.

Thai Smile was Thai Airways' low-cost subsidiary and was founded in 2011. It launched operations a year later in November 2012. It operated a fleet of 20 Airbus A320s, which have now all transferred back to Thai Airways. Thai Smile mainly operated domestically but also served a few international destinations like Hong Kong to compete directly with low-cost carriers as Thai AirAsia.

The 20 A320s are currently the only narrowbody aircraft in the fleet of Thai Airways. However, the airline has announced it has secured leases for at least ten A321neos, which are scheduled to start to arrive later this year.

Photo by Anton Homma.