Asia’s budget airlines are expanding their services to Japan with the number of overseas tourists in the country increasing at a rapid pace. Medium-haul flights from various regions in Asia are reaching beyond big cities like Tokyo and Osaka to regional airports as the tourism boom spreads in Japan.
Competition with Japanese discount and full-service carriers is intensifying as airlines aim to gain market share via better connections.
Bangkok-based low-cost carrier NokScoot plans to begin service within the next 12 months to either Hokkaido in northern Japan or Fukuoka in the west, as said by NokScoot’s Deputy CEO Giam Ming Toh.
The airline held a news conference for announcing the opening of service between Osaka and Bangkok on October 29. This is the airlines’ second route to Japan, following flights between Bangkok and Narita Airport, near Tokyo, which commenced from June.
NokScoot will be flying 415-seat Boeing 777-200s jets four times a week between Osaka and the Thai capital, offering a limited-time fare of 8,900 Yen ($81) one way.
Toh expressed interest in launching more regional routes, as “Japan is becoming one of the most preferable countries to visit for Thais, with the visa exemption scheme since 2013, and repeaters [who] are willing to visit cities other than Tokyo or Osaka.” The company is adding a narrow-body aircraft jet to its fleet in the fourth quarter of this year.
Other Asian budget airlines are also flying to Japan’s regional airports. AirAsia X, the long-haul unit of AirAsia, has service between Sapporo and Kuala Lumpur. In April, it started flying to Sapporo from Bangkok. The airline is also planning to start service from the Malaysian capital to Fukuoka.
Many smaller Japanese airports are hosting overseas budget airlines as well. Last year, 27 smaller regional Japanese airports, excluding seven major airports, received a total of 1.45 million foreign tourists.
