Asian airports maintain momentum in 2019 Arch of Triumph competition

Asian airports continue to account for all of the FTWAs received so far in 2019’s competition. We’re now two weeks in, and all five water arch salutes in 2019 have been for services launched with narrow-body aircraft. Three of the winners have been for new services started by full-service carriers (FSCs), with the other two awarded to airports welcoming routes from LCCs. There’s only one FTWA entry this week, but it’s a solid effort from the winning airport.

Thai Lion Air Bangkok Don Mueang to Colombo 30 January 

The ‘Thai Lion’ basks in the Sri Lankan sunshine.

Judges’ Comments: This is the first FTWA entry anna.aero has received from Colombo since the airport celebrated the launch of flights to Melbourne with SriLankan Airlines back in November 2017. On this occasion, Colombo was welcoming the arrival of its first Thai Lion Air link, with the LCC launching services from Bangkok Don Mueang. The Sri Lankan airport takes the weekly win by default, although this is a fine effort, worthy of the second win of 2019. However, it’s not enough to catch last week’s winning total of 34.4 from Yangon, as the annual leaderboard starts to take shape. 

Jonny: 8.0; Kerry: 8.4; Paul: 8.1; Nick: 8.2.