Air Asia Starts Brisbane-Bangkok Flights

Brisbane flyers will soon have more ways to get to Thailand, with Thai Air Asia X launching direct flights from Brisbane to Bangkok. The low-cost carrier will operate four flights per week starting from 25 June 2019.

Thai Airways is the only other airline operating direct flights on the Brisbane-Bangkok route. Thai used to offer daily flights to Brisbane, but recently cut its schedule back to a 4x weekly service.

Here is the schedule for the new Thai Air Asia X flights:

• XJ311 Brisbane 12:50 – Bangkok (DMK) 19:10 (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays)
• XJ310 Bangkok (DMK) 23:40 – Brisbane 11:35 +1 day (Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays)

Thai Air Asia X will use an Airbus A330-300 on the route with 365 Economy seats in a narrow 3-3-3 configuration. There are also 12 Premium Flatbed seats at the front of the plane in a 2-2-2 layout, which convert into angle-flat beds. As far as the hard product goes, Air Asia’s Premium Flatbed seats aren’t that dissimilar to the angle-flat beds Thai Airways is using on its own Brisbane-Bangkok service at the moment. That said, the “soft product” on Air Asia is much more scaled-back.

Economy prices from Brisbane to Bangkok are starting at $240 one-way, excluding baggage and all extras. Premium Flatbed seats are selling for around $800 one-way, and include baggage as well as one on-board meal.

Unfortunately, Thai Air Asia X uses Bangkok’s older Don Muang Airport (DMK) rather than the newer Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK). Don Muang Airport is not as well-connected as Bangkok’s main international airport, which could also make things difficult if you’re connecting in Bangkok to another flight on a different airline.

Unfortunately they still use DMK which makes it a bit of a PITA if you are transferring to a flight from BKK

And is a pretty horrible airport. There are direct buses between the two airports, and at some point (currently 2021/22 but this is Thailand) the rail line extension via Bang Sue will open

The new route announcement comes as Air Asia X has just axed its fifth-freedom flights between the Gold Coast and Auckland. Emirates also recently announced that it will cease flying from Sydney to Bangkok from June.

Thai Air Asia X, the division of low-cost carrier Air Asia offering long-haul flights out of Thailand, does not currently have any other flights to Australia. But the Malaysian and Indonesian arms of Air Asia already offer flights to Perth, Avalon, Sydney and the Gold Coast.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Thai AirAsia X to launch BNE-DMK

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.