New York. File photo courtesy of Wikipedia

 

Thailand is making swift strides to reopen direct flight routes to the United States, as part of its ambition to become Southeast Asia's central aviation hub. Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit announced an aggressive push for these services, highlighting the absence of non-stop flights to the US since their suspension in 2015.

 

At that time, Thai Airways International halted flights to Los Angeles and New York, following a downgrade in Thailand's aviation safety rating by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

 

The restoration of Thailand's Category 1 status by the FAA in April has reignited hopes for direct flights. Minister Suriya has tasked the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) with collaborating with the FAA and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to make these routes possible.

 

Such services could significantly boost Thailand’s economy, trade, tourism, and aviation credibility on the global stage, according to Minister Suriya.

 

To streamline processes, CAAT is exploring a pre-clearance immigration system at Thai airports, allowing travellers to undergo US immigration checks before leaving Thailand.

 

This system promises to improve convenience and entry processes into the United States. The reestablishment of Category 1 means Thai airlines can again offer nonstop US flights and engage in codeshare agreements with American partners.

 

Though direct routes appear economically challenging due to high fuel costs and aircraft limitations, Thai Airways is focusing on expanding codeshare agreements with US airlines like United and Delta.

 

Meanwhile, CAAT has initiated talks with major US airports and United Airlines, which is exploring launching a Bangkok–Los Angeles service.

 

Minister Suriya also mentioned preparations for an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to assess safety oversight in August.

 

This audit will influence the Effective Implementation Score, a critical measure of aviation safety performance worldwide. Overall, the move to reopen direct routes marks a strategic effort to elevate Thailand’s aviation industry and influence.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from Bangkok Post 2025-06-12

 

 

when will there be direct flights to canada?... never i guess

53 minutes ago, Pouatchee said:

when will there be direct flights to canada?... never i guess

Is this a joke? There’s already a direct flight with Air Canada to Vancouver.

14 minutes ago, Willy333 said:

Is this a joke? There’s already a direct flight with Air Canada to Vancouver.

 

it aint direct if youre in montreal, so no... no joke

How about IAD to BKK?

 United airlines will make a pitstop in Hong Kong (HKG) with two flights a day from both San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX), where passengers can easily connect down to Bangkok. United's short-haul Southeast Asia routes will operate daily starting Oct. 26 on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.  Happy Travels.

1 hour ago, Willy333 said:

Is this a joke? There’s already a direct flight with Air Canada to Vancouver.

It's seasonal (Nov-Mar), but better than nothing.  They also started direct flights to Manila in April.  Direct flights to Singapore started last year.

For what it's worth, I took some of the old direct flights back when they were still operating. I've been on both the JFK-BKK flights and the LAX-BKK flights. The first time I flew in 2006, it was from JFK and they took the polar route. At the time, they were using the Airbus A340-500?  Something like that. Anyway, the Premium Economy seats were well worth the price.  The last time I flew on one of those trips was BKK-LAX. That was 2010 or 2011. I don't remember what plane they used for that flight.  Again, Premium Economy is the way to go.  

 

An interesting detail:  On one of the BBK-JFK flights, I spent almost 17 hours talking to this guy, who was in the seat next to me:

 

 

I didn't know who he was and he didn't volunteer that information.  Anyway, he was telling me about a financial 

company he had in Australia that had thousands of employees, and that he had thousands of other employees around the world. I thought he was just exaggerating or up making up nonsense, but I let him talk. I did sense, though, that he had a good grip on what was going on in the world.  He said he didn't need any money, and that everyone in his family was all set.  His advice to me:  whatever money you have can be gone in a day, but no one can take away your experiences and your memories. go travel and have fun.  

 

Later I was curious wand did some research. That's when I found out he wasn't kidding about his employees around the world. 

 

 

A direct flight from LA would be sweet!

Codeshare on a US carrier, no thank you.  The seats and service is atrocious. 

10 minutes ago, sstuff3 said:

Codeshare on a US carrier, no thank you.  The seats and service is atrocious. 

I think they're looking at all the options, but I'm pretty sure they'd like to use their own planes.  People aren't stupid.  

9 hours ago, Pouatchee said:

when will there be direct flights to canada?... never i guess

We have BKK-YVR.  About 4 months of the year during high season.  Air Canada. 

10 hours ago, webfact said:

allowing travellers to undergo US immigration checks before leaving Thailand

Only to undergo ICE/Immigration scrutiny at US destination? 

I do not believe that they will be bound by any overseas pre-flight US immigration review, especially when US based ICE/Immigration apparently must meet a high quota of entry rejections of foreigners to appease the Trump administration. 

One can only hope this is the case as direct flights to Los Angeles or New York would be fantastic. The thing that comes to mind is number one how reasonable will they be, and number two will they ever happen? I know they're being studied at this point but that doesn't mean that the airlines are going to determine that there is sufficient demand. 

So we'll get all the LA rioters to come to Thailand. Oh that's just wonderful. Grrrreaaat!

While aircraft today have the technical range for a SEA/AFO/LAX/JFK- BKK non-stop, in my head, I wonder about the economics of that type of routing.

 

Given non-stops draw revenue from only O&D traffic - without the ability to draw connection traffic at the hub point (ex: China Air via TPE, All Nippon/JAL via HND/NRT, or Emirates via DXB) I’d wonder if there really is enough volume to justify such a routing and the aircraft utilization that it would require. 

 

Bangkok, like a few destinations in the region, *tend* to be more leisure destinations - therefore tend NOT to draw paid premium cabin demand - which would be a huge driver for cost and revenue justifying this kind of long and thin route.. 

Somewhat similar to how SQ runs their EWR/JFK-SIN with an all C/J & PE cabins and forgo straight Y class all together.  But for that market, it clearly has sufficient paid premium cabin traffic to support both routes (EWR and JFK), I’m not entirely sure that BKK has the same level of consistent demand. 

3 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

One can only hope this is the case as direct flights to Los Angeles or New York would be fantastic. The thing that comes to mind is number one how reasonable will they be, and number two will they ever happen? I know they're being studied at this point but that doesn't mean that the airlines are going to determine that there is sufficient demand. 

Back when I was going back and forth, the flights seemed to be pretty full. I don't remember the frequency, but I'm sure it was at least serval times a week, maybe daily?  I never went in economy, but the round trip on Premium Economy was around $2000 from either JFK or LAX.  That was 10-15 years ago. I thought that was an excellent deal. Supposedly, the flights weren't exactly profitable, especially as the price of jet fuel was rising. I guess they wanted those flights anyway.  

 

All things considered, I never really minded the change of planes in Japan.  If you were careful, the layover might not be too long. Just long enough to get off, stretch your legs, and walk around a bit.  

Just now, jas007 said:

Back when I was going back and forth, the flights seemed to be pretty full. I don't remember the frequency, but I'm sure it was at least serval times a week, maybe daily?  I never went in economy, but the round trip on Premium Economy was around $2000 from either JFK or LAX.  That was 10-15 years ago. I thought that was an excellent deal. Supposedly, the flights weren't exactly profitable, especially as the price of jet fuel was rising. I guess they wanted those flights anyway.  

 

All things considered, I never really minded the change of planes in Japan.  If you were careful, the layover might not be too long. Just long enough to get off, stretch your legs, and walk around a bit.  

Yeah I pretty much have gotten used to it. I typically fly with EVA, and the stopoff is in Taipei, and it's not a big deal. I doubt that I'd be willing to pay considerably more for a non-stop flight. 

12 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Yeah I pretty much have gotten used to it. I typically fly with EVA, and the stopoff is in Taipei, and it's not a big deal. I doubt that I'd be willing to pay considerably more for a non-stop flight. 

I just looked up what I paid for my one way flight on United in 2022, which I took just about as soon as I could once they opened up travel to Thailand with no restrictions.

 

Airfare:1105.00 USDU.S. Transportation Tax:19.70 USDJapan Passenger Security Service Charge:4.00 USDJapan Passenger Service Facilities Charge:7.90 USDThailand Processing User Charge:1.00 USDThailand International Departure Fee:0.40 USDInternational Surcharge:114.60 USDSeptember 11th Security Fee:5.60 USDU.S. Passenger Facility Charge:9.00 USDTotal Per Passenger:1267.20 USDTotal:1267.20 US.

 

That was for a one-way ticket.  Phoenix to San Francisco in Economy, San Francisco to Korea in Premium Economy, and Korea to Bangkok in Economy. And believe it or not, after pricing what Delta wanted for the same  type of service, the cost was a real bargain.  I'm not sure what Delta was thinking back then, but I wasn't going to pay $3300 for a one-way ticket to Bangkok.  So I became a United customer.  

10 hours ago, Willy333 said:

Is this a joke? There’s already a direct flight with Air Canada to Vancouver.

Canada hasn't taken up Trump's offer to be the 51st State yet.  So no Thailand-US flights yet.

9 hours ago, jas007 said:

For what it's worth, I took some of the old direct flights back when they were still operating. I've been on both the JFK-BKK flights and the LAX-BKK flights. The first time I flew in 2006, it was from JFK and they took the polar route. At the time, they were using the Airbus A340-500?  Something like that. Anyway, the Premium Economy seats were well worth the price.  The last time I flew on one of those trips was BKK-LAX. That was 2010 or 2011. I don't remember what plane they used for that flight.  Again, Premium Economy is the way to go.  

 

An interesting detail:  On one of the BBK-JFK flights, I spent almost 17 hours talking to this guy, who was in the seat next to me:

 

 

I didn't know who he was and he didn't volunteer that information.  Anyway, he was telling me about a financial 

company he had in Australia that had thousands of employees, and that he had thousands of other employees around the world. I thought he was just exaggerating or up making up nonsense, but I let him talk. I did sense, though, that he had a good grip on what was going on in the world.  He said he didn't need any money, and that everyone in his family was all set.  His advice to me:  whatever money you have can be gone in a day, but no one can take away your experiences and your memories. go travel and have fun.  

 

Later I was curious wand did some research. That's when I found out he wasn't kidding about his employees around the world. 

 

 

Airbus A340-500.  It was great from LAX to BKK and back.  The premium economy were like business seats on other airlines.  

No worries with the US FAA. Its been gutted more of a problem getting into a safe landing with the lack of air flight controllers.Keep up the good work TACO the countries half "FD"now you will be able to do 100% job before you leave.

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

One can only hope this is the case as direct flights to Los Angeles or New York would be fantastic. The thing that comes to mind is number one how reasonable will they be, and number two will they ever happen? I know they're being studied at this point but that doesn't mean that the airlines are going to determine that there is sufficient demand. 

I believe that when they were downgraded by the FAA 10 years ago, they said, "No matter. Not worth it anyway.".

24 minutes ago, connda said:

Canada hasn't taken up Trump's offer to be the 51st State yet.

La plata o el plomo

While NOT non-stop service, United Airlines will be flying their own metal to BKK ~ Oct. 26 with daily service via HKG.

 

I think they are recruiting Thai-speaking locals.

 

United Grows its Leading Pacific Network with New Flights to Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Adelaide and Manila

 

United will become the only U.S. airline to offer flights to Bangkok, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; daily service launches this October from Hong Kong with one-stop connections from Los Angeles and San Francisco

 

https://www.united.com/en/us/newsroom/announcements/cision-125375

 

1 hour ago, Cameroni said:

So we'll get all the LA rioters to come to Thailand. Oh that's just wonderful. Grrrreaaat!

The type of loser who partakes in a riot can't afford the airfare.  

14 minutes ago, Paul Henry said:

No worries with the US FAA. Its been gutted more of a problem getting into a safe landing with the lack of air flight controllers.Keep up the good work TACO the countries half "FD"now you will be able to do 100% job before you leave.

FFS...What a dumb post. 

12 minutes ago, bamnutsak said:

While NOT non-stop service, United Airlines will be flying their own metal to BKK ~ Oct. 26 with daily service via HKG.

 

I think they are recruiting Thai-speaking locals.

 

United Grows its Leading Pacific Network with New Flights to Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Adelaide and Manila

 

United will become the only U.S. airline to offer flights to Bangkok, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; daily service launches this October from Hong Kong with one-stop connections from Los Angeles and San Francisco

 

https://www.united.com/en/us/newsroom/announcements/cision-125375

 

I was impressed with Premium Economy on the United flight I took in 2022.  My only complaint was that on the flight to Tokyo (I screwed up earlier and said Korea - I guess that trip was in 2019) they wanted everyone to wear masks. Those were still a thing back then as the COVID hysteria was still winding down. But other than that, the flight was good.  New plane, good food, nice seats.  

 

 

Direct flights versus Non-Stop flights.

 

So far, Air Canada has the only non-stop from Bangkok to the Americas (BKK - Vancouver) - and only during Thailand's high season. I know a few people who use it and like it, though it's a bit of a pain if they have to collect their luggage there and go through customs before getting a US connecting flight (or a Canadian connecting flight)

 

It's not really that clear if United and AA flight from LAX or SFO will stop in HKG then carry on to Bangkok. If the US carriers don't physically continue on in the same aircraft to Bangkok they can't call it a 'direct flight' either. Economically challenging is right. THAI stopped some of the US routes regardless of the airport status. It just wasn't viable. 

BTW, an Air India flight with 244 people just crashed shortly after takeoff. Headed for London Gatwick, There is video of the crash. A bit grainy - but it looks like the flaps weren't set for takeoff. BBC has live coverage

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/video/video-captures-moment-air-india-ahmedabad-london-flight-crashed-after-take-off-2739732-2025-06-12

 

BBC link https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c8d1r3m8z92t 

 

Says 53 Brits on board.