Thai Airways is preparing to resume several of their regular overseas services, with a total of 36 destinations chosen for flights that will operate multiple times per week.
The schedule has been amended, and some of these flights will resume in late October/early November, coinciding with Thailand’s planned “soft reopening” to a select group of low-risk countries, while others will not resume until January 1st.
THAI has been in administration at a Bangkok bankruptcy court since the summer of 2020, but the airline has maintained a bare-bones schedule to a small number of countries in order to maintain a lifeline and run repatriation flights for Thai residents living overseas.
Thai Airways’ new schedule, which goes into effect in two weeks, was just published in the Bangkok Post.
Thai Airways International will restart full service on 36 overseas routes to locations in Europe, Asia, and Australia, with most of them resuming on October 31, in reaction to the government’s plan to reopen the kingdom to tourists in November 1.
Non Kalinta, THAI’s executive vice president for trade, announced the decision on Thursday.
He stated that the restoration of foreign services was part of the airline’s winter flying strategy, which would run from October 31 to March 26.
THAI will launch the following new flights through March 2022:
`Routes to Europe and Australia:
1. Bangkok-London and return, from Bangkok on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
2. Bangkok-Frankfurt and return, from Bangkok on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
3. Bangkok-Munich and return, from Bangkok on Sundays (from Jan 1).
4. Bangkok-Paris and return, from Bangkok on Sundays.
5. Bangkok-Brussels and return, from Bangkok on Wednesdays and Fridays
6. Bangkok-Milan and return, from Bangkok on Thursdays and Saturdays (from Jan 1)
7. Bangkok-Copenhagen and return, from Bangkok on Wednesdays and Sundays.
8. Bangkok-Stockholm and return, from Bangkok on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
9. Bangkok-Zurich and return, from Bangkok on Mondays & Wednesdays (once a week from Oct 31 to Dec 31).
10. Bangkok-Sydney and return, from Bangkok on Wednesdays and Sundays.
THAI has already been servicing several of these European destinations over the past 6 months, and in some cases has never stopped flying on those routes.
This is a good number of new connections, but when you look closely at all of the destinations labelled “starting January 1,” I think these are quite speculative, especially the routes within Asia.
Keep in mind that most of these countries still have strong immigration policies that make tourism difficult, even for their own residents who leave the country and then return after spending time abroad.
Are these ties going to come to fruition? My best bet is that they’ll eventually cancel many of these routes by the time they’re meant to go operational.
Passengers who still have outstanding refunds from last year’s cancellation will almost certainly never see their money again, therefore the best advice at this time is to use the coupons Thai Airways has provided to acquire at least something of value in exchange.
By Joe Cusmano
