Thai to begin new service to Oslo

Thai airways is beginning a new long haul flight from Bangkok to Oslo. This will be a 5x weekly flight operated on a A340-500. Services begin June 15, 2009

Cathay Pacific to fly daily from Delhi to Bangkok

With Thailand exempting the tourist visa fee for three months from Thursday, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has announced the launch of a daily non-stop flight from here to Bangkok from March 30. 

“Bangkok is not new to us. It is well known how popular and affordable Bangkok is. We believe that there is untapped potential and this new route promises to serve the unmet needs,” Tom Wright, the airline’s general manager for India, Middle-East, Africa and Pakistan said at a press conference here on Friday. 

Bangkok has one of the highest inflow of tourists and is considered a short getaway destination. Thailand currently gives Indian citizens visa on arrival for a stay not exceeding 15 days. 

The Delhi-Bangkok non-stop flight will take five-and-a-half hours. It will leave New Delhi at 3.30 am and reach Bangkok at 8.55 am. The airline will leave Bangkok at 5.25 pm and reach New Delhi at 7.45 pm (local time). 

At present the airlines flies to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore and has almost 44 flights to these cities. It has two daily flights from Delhi to Hong Kong and 10 flights a week from Mumbai. 

The airline also intends to strengthen its cargo network. “We are looking at expanding our cargo business in India and we see a huge opportunity here,” said Wright. 

The carrier, however, has deferred plans for the construction of a new cargo terminal at the Hong Kong International Airport in order to keep capacity expansion in line with market demand. 

Cathay Pacific posted a net loss of $85.5 billion in the first half of 2008, against a net profit of about $333 million in the same period a year before. 

Cathay Pacific’s passenger load factor, or the proportion of seats filled on its flights, fell by 5.3 per cent in 2008 from a year earlier to 75.5 per cent.

Thai to cut flights from next week

Thai Airways stated it would suspend services to unnamed destinations in China, India, South Korea and Japan from next week, due to a sharp fall in passenger numbers, as a result of political unrest in Thailand and the global financial crisis. The airline will review other network plans later this month. Thai has also deferred remaining investment under a USD87 million plan covering the second half of this year.

Thai Airways: “The global financial crisis has caused passenger numbers to fall below our target. In this period, cabin factors normally are around 70-80%, but currently it is only 50-60%. It is hard to give a projection on whether we will have a loss or profit for this year, as a decline in world oil prices helped reduce fuel costs, but the global economic slowdown might hit tourism”, Apinan Sumanaseni, President. Source: Reuters, 08-Oct-08.

AirAsia to fly Bangkok-Hong Kong

BUDGET carrier AirAsia said on Tuesday it would launch daily flights between Bangkok and Hong Kong from October as it continues to expand its network despite high oil prices.

The airline said it was also adding a second daily flight on its Kuala Lumpur-Hong Kong service due to strong demand.

‘AirAsia has continued to buck industry trends with its rapid expansion plans,’ it said in a statement.

‘The Hong Kong-Bangkok route will provide increased access to Thailand for the huge tourism market in Greater China.’

As part of the launch, the airline said it was offering 5,000 free seats, although passengers must pay for administrative fees and fuel surcharges.

AirAsia has been bullish despite global economic jitters, but its balance sheet was hit in the three months to June, with net profits falling 95 percent due to high fuel costs and foreign exchange losses.

However, the airline’s founder Tony Fernandes said in August that AirAsia was also benefitting from the economic slowdown as more travellers switched from full-service carriers to budget airlines.

Brussels Airlines and Jet Airways expand cooperation

Brussels Airlines and Jet Airways announced that they intend to expand their deal, in order to work together more effectively on a larger number of routes. According to the terms of the new agreement, the two airlines would enter into a code-sharing arrangement on the Brussels to Bangkok route.

Passengers interested in flying between these cities should, however, keep in mind that they will be required to catch an onward connection in Delhi, to the Thai capital city. Thanks to this agreement between Brussels Airlines and Jet Airways , catching that connection will be relatively convenient, as the code-share flight from Brussels will arrive in Delhi just in time for passengers to transfer to the Delhi to Bangkok service.

Jet Airways uses Boeing B-737 and Airbus A-330 planes to connect Delhi to Bangkok and now that the code-sharing agreement is in place, each of these flights will bear the “SN” Brussels Airlines code.