Thailand has regained its position as Southeast Asia’s second-largest aviation market by scheduled seat capacity in September, moving back ahead of Vietnam after spending two consecutive months in third place.
Data from UK aviation analytics company OAG shows Thailand has 6.6 million scheduled airline seats this month, down 0.2% from September last year. Vietnam follows with 6.4 million seats despite recording stronger year-on-year growth of 9.2%.
The difference between the two countries remains narrow at about 200,000 scheduled seats.
Indonesia remains the region’s largest aviation market with 10.8 million scheduled seats, up 7.3% from a year earlier. Across Southeast Asia, total scheduled capacity stands at 48 million seats this month, an increase of 2%.
Vietnam overtook Thailand in July and remained ahead in August, when it recorded 7.27 million scheduled seats, up 10% year on year, compared with Thailand’s 7.19 million, down 1.7%.
Vietnam’s strong August performance was supported by domestic demand, with domestic capacity rising 13.8% to more than 4.7 million seats. Thailand, meanwhile, saw capacity fall at Don Mueang, where Thai AirAsia cut its scheduled seats by 23.4% year on year.
Thai AirAsia had also cut capacity earlier in the year as rising fuel costs linked to conflict in the Middle East added pressure on operations.
Looking ahead, Thai Airways is preparing to expand services during its 2026/27 winter schedule from October 25 to March 27, operating a total of 66 routes.
The airline plans to increase Bangkok-Munich services to 10 flights per week and Bangkok-Paris to 14. Frequencies on Bangkok-Hong Kong will rise to 35 weekly flights, while Bangkok-Vientiane will operate 21 times per week.
Those increases begin on October 25 and therefore do not account for Thailand’s return to second place in September.
AirAsia also ranked as Southeast Asia’s largest airline by scheduled seat capacity in September, with 2.38 million seats despite a 15.7% decline from a year earlier.
Vietnam Airlines followed with 2.25 million seats, up 10.7%, while Lion Air ranked third with 2.23 million seats, down 9.3%.
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