13 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

There have been multiple sources that have quoted July 1st, as an opening date, for incoming international flights. But, nobody knows if that is certain, and nobody knows what the requirements will be. A Covid free letter may be required, and I know for a fact those cannot be obtained in the US, at any price. Also, there may be a requirement of health insurance, without a pandemic exemption, which will be quite costly, and who knows what else.

 

Though Thailand wants, and desperately needs international tourism, it must be very careful, as the country has done a great job in keeping the number of cases and the death rate low, and it has to be very vigilant against a second wave. If that second wave is going to happen here, it will not come from within. We have beaten Covid into the ground here. It is DOA. Thailand is one of the safest places on earth right now, in terms of Covid, in my opinion. But, it is raging throughout the world, and much care has to be taken to prevent it from slipping back in. 

 

Will nations be rated, depending on the number of cases, the number of deaths, how recent the curve flattened, etc? If so, it will be quite difficult to get in from the US (the most radioactive people in the world in terms of tourism in the near future) Spain, Russia, UK, Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey, Iran, India, Canada, and quite possibly China. The world leaders. In Covid. 

Excellent summary. Agreed 

24 minutes ago, uhuh said:

There is no risk of a second wave if a country has completely eradicated the virus and keeps borders closed until there is a vaccine.  

Taiwan has said they will do exactly this. 

(Taiwan has had zero cases for 9 days and zero local transmissions for more than a month)

Sure, in the case of a small island state like Taiwan, or maybe Singapore (and larger states like possibly S. Korea), to the extent it closes its borders until and unless there is a vaccine is one way to avoid a 2nd wave. But, with modern mobility in and among larger countries with many porous provinces or states this will not be possible.

 

As a result, we may see a pretty small list of countries that Thailand will want to accept. Ironically, China looks to be among the first of such countries, given its standing as the #1 tourist source for Thailand, and given that the virus "seems" contained, at least by the reporting sources available, which may or may not be trustworthy.

"small state like Taiwan"

Population the same as Australia. Less desert, though.

They HAVE to open soon,  too many people are going to be hurting more and more.  The only question is how they will do it.  They can't just ban the USA and Europe etc,  at least not for long.  Right now quarantine is the surest method,  but also the most difficult logistically.  Forcing people to be locked up for two weeks will severely limit tourism,  most people just wouldn't go for it.  So there may very well be banning of certain countries or quarantine for a short time,  but it's not sustainable. The obvious eventual solution is testing on arrival.  Problem is that right now the fast testing is not very accurate,  the 5 minute tests from Abbott are reportedly having 15 to 20 percent false negatives.  However they are relatively new and the hope is that they will be able to significantly improve them in the coming months.  I would think there is an enormous amount of work going into them considering their importance.  The fast testing is the only reasonable short term solution I see to this.

44 minutes ago, Mr Natural said:

They can't just ban the USA and Europe etc,  at least not for long. //

Why not? They could do well enough when accepting just asian countries and India, 

1 hour ago, Pattaya46 said:

Why not? They could do well enough when accepting just asian countries and India, 

It's been extended, no flights into Thailand until at least 1st July !

On 5/14/2020 at 8:12 AM, tonray said:

No flights allowed yet. Wait until May 31st and see what the new order is

New order 30th June !

There have been a number of articles in the aviation press stating that airlines will be doing the "covid test" preboarding and issuing the certificate. Some airlines already doing it (Emirates) apparently for regional flights.

 

There are still a lot of flights going on internationally, if not into Thailand.