Thai Airways to launch direct Phuket services from Sydney/Melbourne

Thai Airways is to launch direct services between Phuket and Sydney and Melbourne on October 26.

The flight - TG 980 - will depart from Sydney at 10.20pm on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from October 26.

It will depart Melbourne at 1.15 am, before arriving in Phuket at 5.55am on Thursday, Sunday and Monday.

The aircraft, a Boeing 747, will then fly on to Bangkok, arriving at 8.30am.

Australian marketing manager Sue Mar said the airline’s wholesale arm, Royal Orchid Holidays, would launch special accommodation packages to celebrate the introduction of the service.

Meanwhile, Thai Airways International has cut the price of return airfares to 10 cities in the UK and Europe.

Before tax prices start from $1649 ex Sydney and $1616 ex Perth for new bookings made before October 4.

Travel is from September 29 to November 13.

The cities are London, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Rome, Madrid, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Zurich and Geneva.

Two free stopovers are permitted en-route in each direction, and the tickets are valid for one year.

Children aged between two and 11 years pay 75 percent of the adult fare.

27 August 2003

THAI launches Sydney-Phuket service

PHUKET TOWN: Thai Airways International (THAI) will launch thrice-weekly direct flights to Phuket from Sydney via Melbourne on October 27, it was announced yesterday.

Viset Sontichai, Upper-Southern Thailand District Sales Manager for THAI, told a press conference that the service, TG-980, will use Boeing 737or 747 aircraft, and will land in Phuket on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays at 5:55 am.

Return flights will not be direct, but will be routed via Bangkok, but the announcement will still come as good news to many in the tourism industry who feel that the lack of direct flights to Phuket from abroad, on top of Sars, was a major contributor to this year’s dismal low-season tourist arrivals.

Phuket Tourist Association [PTA] President Pattanapong Aikwanich pointed out that in 2002, the year of the Bali bombing, only 96,343 Australians visited Phuket.

“Some Australian tourists went to beach resorts in other countries, such as Vietnam. But those places still lack Phuket’s name recognition and infrastructure. For this reason, Bali remains our greatest competitor for Australian tourists,” said K. Pattanapong.

“With the introduction of direct flights, Phuket is sure to do better in the low season,” he added.

THAI also expects to announce soon the launch of direct flights to Phuket from Osaka and Guilin.

---Phuket Gazette 2003-10-25

Bangkok, Oct 29 (VNA) - The Thai Airways on Monday launched direct flights from Australia and Japan to the southern resort island of Phuket in a bid to boost the island's tourism industry during the coming season.

The first Boeing 747 flight from Sydney and Melbourne arrived on the island after a flight that began early Monday morning.

Also on Tuesday, the airline resumed flights to Phuket from the Japanese city of Osaka after several years of suspension during Thailand's economic crisis.

The flights from Australia now operate every Monday, Thursday and Sunday, while those from Japan run on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

direct flights to Phuket from Sydney via Melbourne on October 27

Its not quite direct if you first travel south for 1 hour to Melbourne then sit on the ground for another hour before finally heading north to LOS !!!

Thai Airways on Monday launched direct flights from Australia .... to the southern resort island of Phuket

Lucky for us Perth-dwellers we have always been fortunate enough to have the direct Phuket flights with Thai Airways a couple of times a week.  Makes getting to work in southern Burma a little easier, and the stopovers are not too hard either...

:cool:

Thai are about to go from 3 direct flights a week to 4 BKK/BNE/BKK. There's huge demands on the Brisbane run ...one more flight will help.