THAI delays relaunch of domestic flights until Jan 1 after new cases found

By The Nation

 

 

Thai Airways International (THAI) has delayed the relaunch of its Bangkok-Chiang Mai and Bangkok-Phuket services to January 1 after a fresh Covid-19 scare. The flights were originally due to restart on December 25 for the festive season.

 

The move is in response to the discovery of new coronavirus cases in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Bangkok and other provinces.

 

"After Covid-19 was found in many provinces, we have postponed the plan to restore these flights to January 1 next year," THAI officials said, adding that pre-booked passengers can postpone or cancel their trips.

 

Earlier this month THAI said it was restoring domestic services that have been suspended for more than eight months, since April 1, due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

 

The airline will operate round-trip flights from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Bangkok to Phuket three times a week – on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Boeing 777-200ER service will run from January 1 to February 28.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30399410

 

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48 minutes ago, webfact said:

THAI delays relaunch of domestic flights until Jan 1 after new cases found

Back to the donuts and purple custard then .. 

They should try combining the two , bit like a jam donut but with purple stuff instead .. that'd be skies the limit .. 

impressive, got to give it to Thailand.... if they could only start actual mass testing like many countries....

42 minutes ago, MasterBaker said:

impressive, got to give it to Thailand.... if they could only start actual mass testing like many countries....

 

No can do......Too much loss of face when reality bites

Sensible move.

Probably saw the Thanksgiving airport disaster super spread in the US with the 3,000 bodies piling up daily now.

Thailand a total of three deaths for the last 7 months.

6 minutes ago, Natai Beach said:

Sensible move.

Probably saw the Thanksgiving airport disaster super spread in the US with the 3,000 bodies piling up daily now.

Thailand a total of three deaths for the last 7 months.

 

 

There are scads of dailies BKK/DMK - HKT and CNX. VZ, PG, WE, FD, DD, SL all operating flights.

 

TG is in bankruptcy protection, so they have different issues re: starting up routes. Probably not worth the effort to dust off the aircraft, pilots, staff just to lose more money?

 

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

After Covid-19 was found in many provinces, we have postponed the plan to restore these flights to January 1 next year," THAI officials said, adding that pre-booked passengers can postpone or cancel their trips.

Wait, I thought that Covid was under control and all cases were being treated and the rest had entered quarantine who were entering the country.  Only cases listed in the media were the Medical staff from BNH and all have been placed in isolation as well as the cases in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.  Is Thai airways just concerned over the possibilities of people canceling flights and thus deciding to cancel the flights ahead of time?  The other carriers are not, sounds silly to me.

34 minutes ago, Natai Beach said:

Sensible move.

Probably saw the Thanksgiving airport disaster super spread in the US with the 3,000 bodies piling up daily now.

Thailand a total of three deaths for the last 7 months.

Again comparing Thailand to the US.  You just can not stop yourself can you.  One has nothing to do with the other as all other airlines are still flying here.

10 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Wait, I thought that Covid was under control and all cases were being treated and the rest had entered quarantine who were entering the country.  Only cases listed in the media were the Medical staff from BNH and all have been placed in isolation as well as the cases in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.  Is Thai airways just concerned over the possibilities of people canceling flights and thus deciding to cancel the flights ahead of time?  The other carriers are not, sounds silly to me.

No different from any other government, they hate giving out solid information. Much better if it's just vague reassurances.

Perhaps Thai Airways has a better conduit of data than the other airlines, and that's why they are pulling the plug.

I know it has a tad of conspiracy theory; however, it is one hypothesis.

14 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Wait, I thought that Covid was under control 

maybe you missed it. It has been in the Thai news a lot. There is a new cluster from Burma, tracing and thousands are being tested daily to control to attempt to stop the spread. 
 

. 
 

It is called being proactive, that is the way to deal with covid. They wouldn’t want to wait before acting and end up being like France, Italy and Spain with tens of thousands of dead.

 

You are not suggesting they wait until it has spread further and people start dying are you? That would be dumb.

1 minute ago, Natai Beach said:

maybe you missed it. It has been in the Thai news a lot. There is a new cluster from Burma, tracing and thousands are being tested daily to control to attempt to stop the spread. 
 

. 
 

It is called being proactive, that is the way to deal with covid. They wouldn’t want to wait before acting and end up being like France, Italy and Spain with tens of thousands of dead.

 

You are not suggesting they wait until it has spread further and people start dying are you? That would be dumb.

You have no sense or the ability to understand a sarcastic comment do you. You also seem to forget what has been in other OPs so you lack context. So try again.

There's that dangled carrot called hope I keep talking about 

This is where the insanity that is TG gets totally weird and nonsensical..

 

Thai Smile a wholly owned TG subsidiary, yet it still fly's to CNX and their other domestic stations, apparently  oblivious to the risks of covid!

 

Now if I had to speculate, I think they just can't afford to fly a widebody (remember TG is a 100% widebody fleet) on domestic routes. It makes no sense anyway, but thats another story.

 

So rather than expose yet more of their financially dire straits to a gullible public they come up with this cock n bull story

While driving in my provincial region since the COVID thing started, I have several times been overtaken by a caravan of Thairung Humvie copies with govt emblems, driving like the devil was chasing them, I think tracing and proactive action is very much on the table in Thailand.

4 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

So rather than expose yet more of their financially dire straits to a gullible public they come up with this cock n bull story

 

Seems like a reasonable read on this "article".

 

WE is clearly in financial limbo, not particularly clear how the Central Bankruptcy Court will handle them. They were only "absorbed" by TG a few montha ago/

 

Buying a WE ticket should be approached with caution, IMO. 

 

Any money used on a TG ticket might as well be burned or flushed.

 

Maybe best to paint over the THAI brand with black paint and start over. Thai Smile could work as  a do-over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, AlQaholic said:

While driving in my provincial region since the COVID thing started, I have several times been overtaken by a caravan of Thairung Humvie copies with govt emblems, driving like the devil was chasing them, I think tracing and proactive action is very much on the table in Thailand.

You mean they were driving faster than the possible spread of Covid, to try and overtake it - heading it off at the pass?

Thai Airways is wise to hold off until mass tourism returns. The routes Chiang Mai and Phuket are only realistic as subsidised feeder routes into their international connections of which there are currently none without severe restrictions. Nobody here is going to book Thai when domestic fares on Low Cost Carriers such as Nok, Air Asia, Thai Lion and Vietjet are so cheap. Besides; using B777 on routes such as these is insane and probably couldn't even cover costs if full in all classes.

Wait for one 'suspected' C-19 case on 31st December and then flights 'postponed' until end of January.  Etc, etc ,etc.

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

Again comparing Thailand to the US.  You just can not stop yourself can you.  One has nothing to do with the other as all other airlines are still flying here.

All "Private" airlines or those with less government influence.

4 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Seems like a reasonable read on this "article".

 

WE is clearly in financial limbo, not particularly clear how the Central Bankruptcy Court will handle them. They were only "absorbed" by TG a few montha ago/

 

Buying a WE ticket should be approached with caution, IMO. 

 

Any money used on a TG ticket might as well be burned or flushed.

 

Maybe best to paint over the THAI brand with black paint and start over. Thai Smile could work as  a do-over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The financial position within the Thai International Group is interesting.

 

When they announced it back in 2011 it was supposed to be making a profit within 2 years.

 

That being said it has never been clear to me how WE really looked like a real LCC. 

 

And that is a conundrum, since they only ever publish consolidated financials, so it's been impossible to separate TG & WE's numbers.

 

Nobody ever mentions WE in the ongoing tragedy of TG, yet it's fate is intrinsically linked to the plight of Momma Bear 

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

 

 

There are scads of dailies BKK/DMK - HKT and CNX. VZ, PG, WE, FD, DD, SL all operating flights.

 

TG is in bankruptcy protection, so they have different issues re: starting up routes. Probably not worth the effort to dust off the aircraft, pilots, staff just to lose more money?

 

 

FYI Their pilots do monthly SIM sessions. Why 777?  My guess is that within the Boeing crews they have more ex military pilots and do not forget, the external company hired has American roots.

22 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

This is where the insanity that is TG gets totally weird and nonsensical..

 

Thai Smile a wholly owned TG subsidiary, yet it still fly's to CNX and their other domestic stations, apparently  oblivious to the risks of covid!

 

Now if I had to speculate, I think they just can't afford to fly a widebody (remember TG is a 100% widebody fleet) on domestic routes. It makes no sense anyway, but thats another story.

 

So rather than expose yet more of their financially dire straits to a gullible public they come up with this cock n bull story

Yet, the route they want to re introduce was their most profitable in the past, it never should have been canceled in the first place, they mostly used A 330.

2 minutes ago, SomchaiCNX said:

FYI Their pilots do monthly SIM sessions. Why 777?  My guess is that within the Boeing crews they have more ex military pilots and do not forget, the external company hired has American roots.

Why a 77X?

 

Well thats easy, the options within the TG fleet none of them are a good fit for 500 odd mile domestic route. 

 

Pick your poison; B77X, A330, A350, A380(that just makes me laugh, so they probably would), or a B78X.

 

Of their fleet the 78X would be the least worst option

Just now, GinBoy2 said:

Why a 77X?

 

Well thats easy, the options within the TG fleet none of them are a good fit for 500 odd mile domestic route. 

 

Pick your poison; B77X, A330, A350, A380(that just makes me laugh, so they probably would), or a B78X.

 

Of their fleet the 78X would be the least worst option

My pick would have been A220 ????  Perfect aircraft for this region and current situation. You are right those aircraft are not suited for short trips and on top of that you lose a cycle each time.

3 minutes ago, SomchaiCNX said:

My pick would have been A220 ????  Perfect aircraft for this region and current situation. You are right those aircraft are not suited for short trips and on top of that you lose a cycle each time.

If I had to design an new TG for Thailand this would be my dream fleet;

 

A220 - Longer range domestic, CNX, HKT etc

EMB175 -Shorter range domestic, KKC etc

A319/320 - local International routes

 

Then keep the existing widebodies; B77X, A330, A350, B78X, but dumping the A380's, which were always doomed to failure for TG, for long range International.

 

Delusional I know lol

All things considered it strikes me as a sensible  delay. The domestic market is already well serviced and for TG to go into a costly restart in a competitive market which may yet become restricted if the  current C-19 situation unfortunately expands would not be clever business.

6 hours ago, webfact said:

After Covid-19 was found in many provinces

 

How many is it now, for goodness sake? The last time I looked they were talking about seven provinces with covid, which is hardly "many".

Do you wanna have a laugh? read this:

Thai Airways taking delivery of three new 777s

Thai Airways will be taking delivery of three new Boeing 777-300ERs shortly, the first of which will potentially be in the carrier’s possession within weeks. Thai Airways committed to leasing these planes back in 2018, though this is the first I’ve heard of it. Below you can already see some of the purple of Thai Airways’ livery on the tail of the 777 in Boeing’s Everett line.

Why is it funny? because Thai is junking a bunch of 747's and a handful of the 777s the very same planes they are getting a delivery of soon...

 

https://onemileatatime.com/thai-airways-new-777/#:~:text=Bottom line-,Thai Airways taking delivery of three new 777s,I've heard of it.

Yhai are really in bad shape now bankrupt and bleeding money everywhere, a basket case!

7 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Thai Airways taking delivery of three new 777s

 

Think these are in limbo?

 

Thai Airways puts the brakes on new Boeing 777s

The airline says it's in negotiations with Boeing over the fate of three factory-fresh 777s with new first class suites.

 

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/thai-airways-new-boeing-777-deliveries

 

But then again...

 

Exclusive: BOC Aviation agrees 777-300ER leases

 

Singapore-based lessor BOC Aviation confirms that it has outstanding orders for three new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and that all three aircraft have been contractually agreed to go on operating lease with Thai Airways. The aircraft are expected to be delivered in 2021.

 

The first aircraft has been produced; it was painted into Thai Airways’ base colours this week. Airfinance Journal understands that the three incoming 777-300ERs will have the internal airline code ‘77V’ and that they will be the first Thai Airways 777-300ER aircraft to feature first class seating.

 

https://www.airfinancejournal.com/articles/3581522/exclusive-boc-aviation-agrees-new-777-300er-leases

 

 

YMMV.