Thai Airways is looking at increasing its business in the Philippines to capture the growing outbound market, with the airline’s president saying to “at least maybe start off by increasing frequency” in Manila where it flies to Bangkok 10 times weekly.

“It’s [the Philippines] one of the focus areas for sure because of the growth,” Charamporn Jotikasthira, president, Thai Airways International PCL told Travel Update Philippines on the sidelines of the press conference that opened this year’s IT&CMA Asia in Bangkok.

“As far as secondary city, we’re looking at it [opening new routes], although we don’t have a specific plan for this winter yet,” he said. “Winter [schedule] has been announced, but that can change even during the period. But that means we have to shift the other [schedule].”

In the first six months of 2015, 153,043 Filipinos flew to Thailand, an increase of 3.7 percent from the same period last year, according to data from the government agency Department of Tourism Thailand.

Thai Airways is one of the sponsors of IT&CMA Asia and CTW Asia-Pacific, a double bill event for the MICE and corporate travel industries. This year saw 14-percent increase in exhibitors’ participation, with 10,000 business appointments set on September 30 to October 1.