Govt Wants To Raise Fares of 'Low-Cost' Airlines
By Khaosod English


Low-cost airline Air Asia announced opening of Bangkok - Sakon Nakhon route on 1 October 2014.

BANGKOK – Thailand’s military government is asking domestic “low-cost” airlines to raise their ticket prices to prevent stealing market share from inter-provincial bus companies.

Thailand's Minister of Transport, Air Chief Marshal Prajin Janthong, said the cheap fares for domestic flights offered by low-cost airlines are hampering the business of public bus companies in Thailand.

"We cannot set the fares of low-cost airlines, but we will seek cooperation from these airlines to refrain from setting fares that are too low, because they may affect other types of public transportation," said ACM Prajin, who also sits in the ruling military junta.

His comment came after Suchinda Cherdchai, the owner of several major bus companies, filed a complaint with the government claiming that her business has been affected by domestic airlines, some of which offer prices cheaper than bus tickets.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1420782999


-- Khaosod English 2015-01-09

I don't believe this. Government intervention in a free market? I don't blame travellers who want to travel by air as opposed to the dangerous accident prone busses on Thai roads.

Bus or Plane Plane

Think before opening mouth. Will the next thing be "We want more international investors!"?

So, AirAsia can run an airline cheaper than the Thais can run a bus route?

Maybe Thai Airways could lower prices and run domestic routes and run these bandits off?

Maybe Ms Suchinda should get into the low cost airline industry rather than running to the junta complaining of having competition.

Suchinda Cherdchai should make her buses safer, less environment damaging, buy new high quality bises, hire skilled drivers, ensure the timetable is held and lower the prices. If she can not, then she should find something ells to do. In the civilised world they calls it "the free market".

Maybe they should ask Suchinda Cherdchai, the owner of several major bus companies, to delay the purchase of the next Lamborghini with a few weeks and instead lower the bus ticket prices.

That's one way of increasing bums-on-seats and revenue for Thai Airways, this is the REAL reason for increasing "low-cost" airlines fares.

Perhaps the owner of the bus companies should lower their prices to become competitive.

I think because the death toll over the holiday was too low that the leaders want more people traveling by bus. If more people traveled by bus and less on airplanes, we could see a higher death toll as the buses do what Thai buses do, get in accidents and kill people with regularity. We all know that bus travel is like Russian Roulette here in Thailand. I can definitely see the leaders looking out for the welfare of the people.

They know how to place the blame on anyone but themselves.

Here is an idea for the government

How about yearly inspections of the equipment of these inter-provincial bus companies

How about governors to slow down these inter-provincial bus companies

How about log books that show exactly how long a driving shift is on these inter-provincial bus companies

How about publishing the safety records of these inter-provincial bus companies

How about restoring democracy in Thailand so that these hair brained ideas from the military masters stop

what the hell?

this just confuses me so much

The comedy from the incumbents just gets better day by day.

You think they can't come up with a better one each time but they do!

AirAsia Phuket to Bkk is cheaper than the taxi from Rawai to the bloody airport !

So there'll be more carnage and deaths on the road?

1 hour by plane or for the same cost 10+ hours on a hot rickety bus, hmmm?

If there was ever evidence to show that this bunch are in the pocket of all the wrong type of people when it comes to running a country this is it.

Airlines bad. Buses good.

Trains? Oh yeah, we are just investing in some.

These people are absolute dinosaurs. Obviously the minister is on someones speed dial somewhere and can be made to make a dumb statement like this, at a whim.

P.s. Mr minister, oil is coming down, cheap tickets are good for the PEOPLE. Nitwit

2Pax, Surat - DM - SakNak - DM - Surat

total price <B6000, bought while on "sale"

Suchinda can park her bus where the sun don't shine.

It is not the airlines that are cheap it is the buses that are expensive The Government should get the buses to lower their prices

Rip the public off and overcharge them , because the National airline is an overpriced shambles,

I suppose the horse & cart people also complained when buses started becoming popular. Provide a safe, reliable, efficient & clean bus service as a positive alternative.

Totally crazy and shows the mentality of Thais and competition.

No one will need to fly anyway when the Chinese finish the Rail-a-Thon they are planning for Thailand

Junta is backward thinking and totally out of step on this one. As mentioned, if bus companies are hurting due to other forms of travel, smarten up, get your act together and offer a good service. And I posit it's not just the price either. People are simply fed up of doing 12-hour+ journeys to the capital when they could get there in an hour. This goes for government employees, too, who's supervisors would send them on a bus or train... but now their budgets can allow them to fly and thus be more productive.

It is 2015, junta, not 1815. Get with it! Buses are a short-haul idea in this century, flying is the way forwards, or is it that you would just prefer to keep your people down? pffft!

Perhaps the owner of the bus companies should lower their prices to become competitive.

Lower prices? It's the high season. 555

and

Kill less people by your crap buses may be you get more costumer instead of crying to Government.

And what about the free competition?

Thainess...... If she can't get enough people onto the buses, why doesn't she follow usual quaint Thai practice, and push the prices up to cover costs?

So, AirAsia can run an airline cheaper than the Thais can run a bus route?

Maybe Thai Airways could lower prices and run domestic routes and run these bandits off?

Thai Airways flies to fewer domestic destinations than ever before, seems like they have almost abandoned the country. And even with THAI Smile, they don't have any strategy to fly to these smaller cities, some of which the mainline THAI carrier used to fly to, including Phitsanulok, Lampang, Phetchabun, Nan, Mae Hong Son, Sakorn Nakorn, Nakorn Sri Thammarat, Narathiwat and others. And that's just linking Bangkok with each of these cities. I have never heard of any links planned by THAI between secondary cities such as Chiang Mai, Udon Thani etc. which is something that even Air Asia has managed to do in the meantime.

It's THAI Airways fault for abandoning these routes and basically selling themselves out to the low cost competition.