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[stanlaurel]

CNX used to be well connected to the south of South East Asia by Tiger Air which sadly has shifted to Australia where they now have 13 destinations. The CNX-Kuala Lumpur and CNX-Singapore connections have been discontinued.

That leaves CNX with 5 international connections

Taipei (Taiwan)

Seoul (Korea)

Kunming (China)

Luang Prabang (Laos)

Singapore (what?)

Seoul and Taipei are the golf-player highways, Luang Prabang is the tourist express and Kunming the Yunnan mafia business-line. (Rather weird to be on any of these flights has anyone here been? how did you find it?) Singapore is a mix of the above three although the percentage of golf players has probably increased since Tiger isn't flying any longer.

A ticket to BKK with Thai is still the same but the fuel surcharge is now 2400 Baht. Ups the price about 50%. Bus and train operators will probably follow, soon. Just a guess, but I think many businesses in Chiang Mai look at draughty times... less tourists, more expats.

For good or worse

[rrose070]

I'm curious; is it Tiger air that flies from Taipei? If not, who? I fly EVA from the US to taipei, then to BKK, then to CNX. I'd love to cut out a leg...

[mcgriffith]

rrose070, CAL (China Airlines) flies direct CNX to Taipei. Connections to multiple north American west coast cities (Seattle, San Francisco, LA).

Most of my CM American friends use CAL to fly back to the USA. Cuts out the BKK leg.

Price (don't quote me; may have gone up due to fuel surcharges) about $1100 r/t to any of the above.

[THAILIBAN]

CNX - KUL has not been discontinued. actually TIGER was never flying to KUL.

that was always the Malaysian AirAsia, and they still do fly to KUL daily.

If routes can not be operated in a profitable way, ALL airlines of the world would discontinue it. Tiger did not only axe CNX-SIN in Thailand, they as well stopped UTH-SIN (which actually could be foreseen).

such is life....

[lannarebirth]

rrose070, CAL (China Airlines) flies direct CNX to Taipei. Connections to multiple north American west coast cities (Seattle, San Francisco, LA).

Most of my CM American friends use CAL to fly back to the USA. Cuts out the BKK leg.

Price (don't quote me; may have gone up due to fuel surcharges) about $1100 r/t to any of the above.

About $1,300 when flown last month.

[mcgriffith]

Thanks, LRB! 'Twas just wishful thinking on my part, no doubt.....

[Ricardo]

IMO, whichever Gulf-based carrier first begins, to offer a couple of weekly direct-flights from CNX with onward-connections throughout Europe, will gain an awful lot of loyal frequent-flyer-card-carrying farang customers, who wish to avoid the expensive and time-consuming TG-leg via BKK from which we currently suffer.

The other daily-rotations,when they don't come to CNX, would of course be to Phuket, with its larger tourist-numbers & expat-community.

I find it unbelieveable that people like Emirates or Qatar or Etihad can fly up-to 4 times daily to BKK, and offer up-to 6 UK-destinations, let alone the rest of Europe, and yet still don't seem to realise that Thailand is more than just BKK. Although admittedly it might use a smaller aircraft on non-BKK routes when available. Perhaps we just have to wait for Emirates' 45 (or so) A380s, to start arriving, before their smaller planes are released for duty on less-than-core routes ?

Rant over.

[catmac]

IMO, whichever Gulf-based carrier first begins, to offer a couple of weekly direct-flights from CNX with onward-connections throughout Europe, will gain an awful lot of loyal frequent-flyer-card-carrying farang customers, who wish to avoid the expensive and time-consuming TG-leg via BKK from which we currently suffer.

The other daily-rotations,when they don't come to CNX, would of course be to Phuket, with its larger tourist-numbers & expat-community.

I find it unbelieveable that people like Emirates or Qatar or Etihad can fly up-to 4 times daily to BKK, and offer up-to 6 UK-destinations, let alone the rest of Europe, and yet still don't seem to realise that Thailand is more than just BKK. Although admittedly it might use a smaller aircraft on non-BKK routes when available. Perhaps we just have to wait for Emirates' 45 (or so) A380s, to start arriving, before their smaller planes are released for duty on less-than-core routes ?

Rant over.

Now that would be a blessing. I always fly back to the UK with Qatar now, have used Emirates and Etihad as well, but being able to ditch that BKK bore would be a dream!

[uptheos]

Now that would be a blessing. I always fly back to the UK with Qatar now, have used Emirates and Etihad as well, but being able to ditch that BKK bore would be a dream!

Same here, I have been using Qatar to LHR three times a year for the last three years and I have no complaints with the service or price. Great inflight entertainment and the food is very good.

Seat legroom in economy isn't the most generous for a big person, but usually I sleep on the second leg so it's OK. I can get good connections in Doha, about one and half hour change going out and coming back on QR6 there is no waiting time it's off of one aircraft and on to the other.

Doha airport is just a duty free shopping centre, not very big and no character, so wouldn't want to be stuck there for too long.

I agree with previous posts that the CNX -BKK leg is a real bore and probably the worst part of the journey.

[THAILIBAN]

that could be interesting indeed.

all those middle-east-carriers have ordered so many planes, without new destinations they wont be able to employ them.

it would make sense to split seven weekly direct flights between HKT and CNX (3/4 or 4/3).

on the other hand, as long as most intercontinental flights out of BKK are almost always 90-100% full, why should they bother to fly from anywhere else.... setting up an office and ground-operations at a new destination costs a lot of money.....

[Ricardo]

on the other hand, as long as most intercontinental flights out of BKK are almost always 90-100% full, why should they bother to fly from anywhere else.... setting up an office and ground-operations at a new destination costs a lot of money.....

Agreed about the costs, but if Emirates can fly to several UK airports, or Qatar to several places in India, it ought to be possible in Thailand, for one daily flight split between a couple of extra destinations. Both HKT & CNX would generate considerable inbound traffic for them as well IMO, doesn't HKT fill wide-bodied charter-flights from Europe, every winter ?

The key point is, whichever one is the first to fly to CNX, all us local farangs will use them, to save 6k Baht & 3-4 hours, and we will then join their frequent-flyer programmes & thus be relatively-loyal customers locked-in by our accumulated air-miles, which is the whole point of these schemes. I suspect they could even charge a couple of thousand Baht more, than for flights into BKK, and still get the same reaction !

I only hope that they have spotted this opportunity, and that something will eventually materialise, sooner or later.