This afternoon I found myself spending a few hours in the lobby of the Sunee Grand Hotel in Ubon Ratchathani. Nice place.

During this time I observed a Thai Airways crew - captain, first officer and cabin staff assemble and be carted off in their minibus to operate the mid-afternoon flight to BKK. A while later the incoming crew of the flight arrived and were checked into the hotel.

Ponder for a moment the economics of this. The outgoing crew had clearly spent the night at the hotel. They did not operate the morning flight out of UBP, so hence they had the majority of the day at their leisure. The incoming crew have now arrived and will presumably repeat the exercise. What possible need could there be for flight crews operating what is little more than a one hour domestic flight to overnight in a very nice hotel?

At best this is incompetant scheduling leading to a crew running out of operating hours a short distance from home base. At worst it is a shameful waste of public funds by a government-owned airline. Either way, the mind boggles at such squander in a country where so many struggle to exist on so little.

If as you say is true, yes it appears to be a waste of resources if it's one flight a day. Why not just turn it around?

Thai is a publicly traded airline on the SET by the way.

Thai Airways crew ate regularly at a snackbar my wife and I used to frequent in Frankfurt.

Can't say where they were overnighting, but it obviously didn't provide enough chili power.

It was a tiny place with the cook right behind the counter, so I'd guess they were paying out of their own pocket.

Had everybody coughing when their order was being prepared.

Legal requirements reference crew rest. The crew also may not have started in bangkok and may not finish in bangkok on arrival they may have operated for example 3 sectors or even 4 sectors.

Legal requirements reference crew rest. The crew also may not have started in bangkok and may not finish in bangkok on arrival they may have operated for example 3 sectors or even 4 sectors.

But that is precisely the point I make about possibly incompetant scheduling - if a crew is running out of legal hours, it makes no sense to send them out on a short domestic flight leading to a situation where they then need to overnight away from base.

So, you are assuming that they only did the one leg or did you actually go ask the crew?

They are probably union employees .

Legal requirements reference crew rest. The crew also may not have started in bangkok and may not finish in bangkok on arrival they may have operated for example 3 sectors or even 4 sectors.

But that is precisely the point I make about possibly incompetant scheduling - if a crew is running out of legal hours, it makes no sense to send them out on a short domestic flight leading to a situation where they then need to overnight away from base.

I understand that they may not start nor finish in Bangkok but if they start in Udon for example, then you'd expect them to live in Udon and therefore not require hotels. If they start in Bangkok, then the schedule should get them back to Bangkok and avoid overnighting in hotels.

Thai Air is like the worst run company in the world!

I think eventually they will just get some kind of annual subsidiary from the taxpayers. Should make everyone happy!

I understand that they may not start nor finish in Bangkok but if they start in Udon for example, then you'd expect them to live in Udon and therefore not require hotels. If they start in Bangkok, then the schedule should get them back to Bangkok and avoid overnighting in hotels.

The industry (Not just TG) does not work like that. You do not have Crew based at every destination in an airline. They may have been flying all day get to udon have their 11hours rest then fly back to bkk then either finish in BKK or continue onto somewhere eg singapore then stay in singapore.

Its cheaper to hotel the crew than to open a crew base at every destination!! And also bare in mind the price airlines pay for hotels is very cheap compared to the normal rates the Hotel costs for crew are insignificant in the big picture of airline operations.

For the quality of hotel you mention above TG will have negotiated a rate probably somewhere around <=500THB per room to give you an idea.

If you take the Hyatt Regency for example in Korea (a very nice hotel) ave room rate around 250-300US per night - Crew rate will be around 80-90US.

Edited December 23, 200916 yr by namoo

My first thought when reading this thread was, why do you care so much?

My first thought when reading this thread was, why do you care so much?

Perhaps because he uses the airline and they are cutting destinations that he needs, because of "expense".

My first thought when reading this thread was, why do you care so much?

I'm not an obsessive person, honest......but the answer to your question lies in the final sentence of my original post.

Maybe it was end of shift for that crew, or maybe they were running the an early flight out the next morning. I'd prefer the pilot to be well rested and not jacked up on red bull and falling asleep at the lights like some BKK taxi drivers

I think sbk may have got it right Dave.

You never know how much they had travelled before you laying eyes on them.

Well observed though .