| Austrian Airlines is to launch direct flights between Vienna and Thailand's southern resort province of Phuket, a move which the airline expects will help pull in an extra 14,000 European visitors to the southern resort island each year.
Announced yesterday by Mr. Josef Berger, the airline's head of commercial operations, the twice-weekly flights will commence on 4 November.
A third flight per week will be introduced the following month for the 12-hour journey.
The airline has acknowledged that the launch of the new service is a means of helping Phuket rebuild its tourism industry in the wake of the Boxing Day tsunami.
Yesterday Mr. Berger expressed confidence that the new route would help attract an additional 14,000 European visitors to Phuket and the Andaman provinces each year, boosting foreign revenue in the region by no less than Bt400-500 million.
Visitor numbers in Phuket and the Andaman region have slumped since the massive waves hit on 26 December last year, leading to the loss of over 8,000 lives in Thailand alone.
The decision by Austrian Airlines to launch the direct flights has been applauded by Mrs. Suwalai Pinpradap, Director of the local Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)'s southern region office, who described the move as an excellent way in which to promote local tourism.
She also expressed confidence that other European airlines would follow Austrian Airlines in its decision to resume flights to the southern island, which has seen a huge loss in the number of airlines operating there since the tsunami.
By: MCOT, Thailand
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