Reports of Kuching–Bangkok slots premature, AirBorneo says focus remains on intra‑Borneo recovery

KUCHING, June 15 — AirBorneo has clarified that it has not submitted an application for a direct Kuching-Bangkok service and that no such route has been formally confirmed at this stage.

The clarification comes following reports by Thailand’s The Nation that the Sarawak-owned airline had been allocated airport slots for a proposed Kuching-Suvarnabhumi route during the Winter 2026/2027 scheduling season.

In a statement issued to The Borneo Post, AirBorneo said while destinations across the region form part of its longer-term network planning, no application has been submitted for the recently mentioned Bangkok route.

“We appreciate and are thankful for the strong public interest in AirBorneo’s network expansion plans, and we can confirm that destinations across the region are part of our longer-term route planning.

“However, we wish to clarify that no application has been submitted for the recently mentioned Bangkok route at this stage, as nothing has been formally confirmed,” the airline said.

AirBorneo added that any future international service would be subject to the usual regulatory and approval processes before any announcement is made.

“As with any new international service, any future route would need to go through the standard regulatory and approval processes before it can be announced.

“We would caution against treating any specific route, frequency, or schedule as confirmed until that process is complete,” it said.

AirBorneo also stressed that its immediate focus remains on strengthening its existing operations following service disruptions earlier this month.

“Our current priority remains stabilising and strengthening our current intra-Borneo operations following the service disruptions earlier this month, which are now well into recovery.

“We are committed to getting the fundamentals right for our existing routes first,” it said.

The airline added that any confirmed network expansion plans would be announced through its official channels at the appropriate time.

The Nation, one of Bangkok’s English-language dailies, cited the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) as saying that AirBorneo had been allocated airport slots to operate 14 weekly flights on the Kuching-Suvarnabhumi-Kuching route during the Winter 2026/2027 schedule. — The Borneo Post