The airlines announced their intention to conclude a new special tariff agreement that will allow AeroSvit, in cooperation with Thai International, to deliver passengers via the Thai capital to 15 countries of Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region (about 20 routes). These include Vietnam (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City), Singapore, Indonesia (Jakarta), China (Hong Kong), Australia (Sydney, Melbourne), the Philippines (Manila), Japan (Tokyo, Osaka) and the Republic of Korea (Seoul). At the same time, Thai International passengers will be able to fly via Kyiv on AeroSvit flights to countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Scandinavia and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The memorandum signed by the companies also provides for the conclusion of an agreement on the joint operation of the Kyiv - Bangkok air route, thanks to which AeroSvit will be able to involve the extensive network of Thai International offices - one of the world's largest airlines, serving 72 air destinations in 37 countries - in the sale of transportation on its flights.
The General Director of AeroSvit, Grigory Gurtovoy, and the Executive Vice President of Thai International, Tasnai Sadesna, speaking after the document signing ceremony, regarded the event as an extremely serious step forward in the development of cooperation between the airlines. They noted that the mutual complementarity of the route networks of the two leading air carriers of Ukraine and Thailand would open fundamentally new flight opportunities for passengers of these countries, as well as strengthen the transit potential of the international airports Boryspil and Don Muang (Thailand).
AeroSvit - Ukrainian Airlines opened a regular non-stop flight on the Kyiv - Bangkok - Kyiv route in November 2002. For the period until the end of April of the current year, the company carried about 15,000 passengers on this route. Since the beginning of May, the flight was temporarily suspended due to the general trend of declining passenger traffic on routes to Southeast Asia. The company plans to resume regular air service between Ukraine and Thailand from October 6, 2003.