Bangkok goes direct from six more Indian cities. It is happening because Indians stopped coming.

Thai AirAsia is putting six suspended Indian routes back in the air, and IndiGo is opening two of its own. Between 25 October and 17 November, Bangkok becomes a non-stop from Gaya, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Jaipur. Most of those cities had no direct flight to Thailand at all this summer.

AirAsia announced the restorations on 22 September. India is the only one of Thailand's four largest source markets that has gone backwards this year, and it went backwards because of a visa change that was announced, argued over, then cancelled before it took effect. The seats are landing in a market still recovering from a mistake nobody made on purpose, which is the situation that produces cheap fares.

The eight launches, and when each one starts

Thai AirAsia flies out of Don Mueang, Bangkok's older second airport, not Suvarnabhumi. Six routes come back between late October and mid-November, per the airline's announcement and the filed schedules:

• Gaya from 25 October. Frequency not published.
• Ahmedabad from 6 November, four a week on an A320neo.
• Guwahati from 16 November, four a week on an A320.
• Hyderabad from 16 November, four a week on an A320.
• Lucknow from 16 November, four a week on an A320neo.
• Jaipur from 17 November, four a week on an A320neo.

Thai AirAsia X runs four a week to Delhi separately. With these six back, AirAsia's Thai carriers cover 53 routes to 46 cities from Don Mueang, eleven of them Indian. The airline had cut around 30% of its seats in May and June, blaming soft demand and fuel prices, so this is a reversal of its own retreat rather than fresh growth.

IndiGo's two are new rather than restored, and they land at Suvarnabhumi. Gaya to Bangkok starts 26 October, Mondays and Thursdays: 6E 1083 leaves Gaya at 1.15pm and lands at 5.50pm, and 6E 1084 leaves Bangkok at 10.15am to be back in Gaya at 12.15pm.

Guwahati has an inaugural flight on 27 October and settles into Wednesdays and Saturdays from 31 October. 6E 1085 leaves Guwahati at 6.15pm and lands at 10.45pm; 6E 1086 leaves Bangkok at 8.50am and is in Guwahati at 10.25am. IndiGo calls it its first international route out of Guwahati, and it is, though the city pair is not new: Thai AirAsia restores the same one on 16 November. From mid-November Guwahati has two carriers flying to two different Bangkok airports.

Gaya gets both, a day apart, AirAsia on the 25th and IndiGo on the 26th. A lot of that traffic is pilgrims heading to Bodh Gaya rather than Biharis heading out, so on that route the money is in the inbound direction and your outbound seat is whatever the airline has left over.

Why the seats are coming back now

On 19 May the Thai cabinet proposed taking Indians off visa-free entry and replacing it with a 15-day visa on arrival costing 2,000 baht. On 14 July it reversed itself, and the paid visa was never enforced. The announcement alone did the damage, landing inside the booking window for July and August travel. Tourism and Sports Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul has linked the confusion to booking declines approaching 20%.

The Bank of Thailand put numbers on it at the end of August. Indian arrivals were down 11.6% year on year in the first three weeks of the month, after a 20.2% drop in July. Over the same period China was up 23.5%, the Middle East up 18.6% and Europe up 1.2%. India was the only one of the big four going the wrong way, which is hard to blame on weather or fuel.

India sent Thailand a record 2.48 million visitors in 2025, worth 90.43 billion baht. The 2026 target is 2.7 million, and by 1 August the count stood at 1,376,433. Two months of double-digit falls inside a growth market is what gets routes restored in a hurry.

The rule that applies to you was published in the Royal Gazette on 31 August and took effect on 15 September. Indians get 30 days visa-free, down from 60. Enter overland rather than by air and you can use the exemption only twice a calendar year.

What this means for your trip

Fares should soften on these routes through November and December. Four weekly flights on an A320 is roughly 700 seats a week each way into a market that just shrank, and every one of these routes was suspended because the airline could not fill it. Watch Hyderabad, Lucknow and Jaipur, where the alternative is still a connection through Delhi or Kolkata.

Twice-weekly flying then locks your trip length. IndiGo out of Gaya on a Monday means back on a Thursday, which after a 1.15pm departure and a 10.15am return is two usable days in Bangkok. Thursday out and Monday back gives you three. Guwahati is worse: a 6.15pm departure costs you that day entirely, and the 8.50am return takes the last morning with it, so Wednesday to Saturday is two days on the ground and Saturday to Wednesday is three. Book the longer pairing.

And Don Mueang is not Suvarnabhumi. It sits about 25km north of the city with no airport rail link. If AirAsia and IndiGo are close on price out of Gaya or Guwahati, the Suvarnabhumi arrival earns the difference at both ends of the trip.

What to do about it

Do not book against the announcement. A route that restarts on 16 November does not fly on the 10th, and "up to four a week" is a ceiling rather than a promise. Search your real dates in live inventory and hold a flight number.

Then get the paperwork right, because these are mostly cities where a Thailand trip is a new thing rather than an annual habit. The Indian Embassy in Bangkok issued an eleven-point advisory on 3 July asking travellers to carry 20,000 baht per person, about ₹57,400 at today's rate of ₹2.87 to the baht, plus a confirmed return ticket, a confirmed hotel booking and an itinerary. Keep all of it in your hand baggage. That advisory's visa section predates the 14 July reversal and is out of date on that one point; the cash and documents guidance is what immigration at either Bangkok airport still asks about.

Fill the Thailand Digital Arrival Card online within 72 hours of landing and save the QR code offline. Your passport needs six months of validity from the day you arrive.

For the two or three day Bangkok block these schedules give you, book the things that do not need a whole day.

The Chao Phraya hop-on boat at ₹370 is the best value we sell in Bangkok, and it is transport rather than sightseeing. The river runs past the Grand Palace, Wat Arun and Chinatown without touching the traffic, which on a short trip gives you back an hour a day. The Chinatown street food walk at ₹3,082 belongs on the first evening if you land in daylight. The SEA LIFE and Madame Tussauds combo at ₹352 is cheap enough to keep as a hot-afternoon fallback with children, and dull enough that I would not build a morning around it.

If you get four days and one is free, Ayutthaya justifies the trip out of the city. Ninety minutes north, ruined brick temples, and it explains what you have been looking at back in Bangkok.

What is still unsettled

Gaya's AirAsia frequency has not been published, so treat that route as the least certain of the six. Restored routes also get pulled again: these same six went in May and June when demand and fuel moved the wrong way, and nothing about a high-season restoration stops that repeating in February.

Thirty days is the rule today, and the cabinet has changed its mind about Indian entry twice in five months. A separate 450-baht entry fee is still working towards collection in early 2027 and is not in force. Check your entry terms in the week you fly, not the week you book.

Six Indian cities are about to get Bangkok back, largely because Thailand spent the summer accidentally telling Indians not to come.

If you live in Lucknow, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Guwahati or Gaya, this is the cheapest winter Bangkok has been from your own airport in some time. Take the four-night pairing over the three, pick Suvarnabhumi if the fares are close, and carry the cash.

Routes, dates, frequencies and fees were checked on 29 September 2026 against the AirAsia newsroom release of 22 September, IndiGo's press release of 7 September, filed schedules reported by AeroRoutes, the Royal Gazette notification of 31 August as summarised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Bank of Thailand arrival figures, the Indian Embassy advisory of 3 July, and reporting in the Bangkok Post, The Nation and the Thaiger. Schedules move before they fly. Our prices are today's.