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Thailand Vacations & Thailand Travel
3 Airlines cut routes to save costs

Three low-cost airlines - Nok Air, One-Two-Go and Thai AirAsia - have cut and rescheduled flights in response to record-high jet fuel prices.

Effective yesterday, Nok Air cut three domestic routes - Bangkok-Chiang Rai, Bangkok-Ubon Ratchathani and Bangkok-Krabi. It is also considering reducing its 21 flights a week to Phuket.

Affected travellers are being transferred to Thai Airways International and Thai AirAsia.
The domestic route changes followed the cancellation of its international Bangkok-Bangalore and Bangkok-Hanoi flights.

“We’re losing money,” an airline representative said, who declined to confirm if losses were as high as Bt1 billion as had been reported. The reports have fuelled expectations that the airline would be shut down soon.

Meanwhile, One-Two-Go has cut the number of Bangkok-Chiang Mai and Bangkok-Phuket flights from 28 per week to 21, starting yesterday. The flight frequency to Hat Yai has also been cut by half to seven, while those to Chiang Rai and Nakhon Si Thammarat are down from seven to two flights per week. The daily flight to Surat Thani is to continue.

Thai AirAsia has cancelled the weekly flight to Xiamen, China, due to lack of passengers.
Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of Thai AirAsia, said operating costs had jumped from 30 per cent to 50 per cent due to spiking oil prices.”However, we have no further plans to reduce or cut more flights,” he said.

The airline planned to add more international routes from Bangkok to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China, within the next two or three months. It is also studying scheduling flights to
Bali. The airline recently started flights to Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City.

Thai AirAsia has increased its flights to Phuket and Chiang Mai. The airline expected the number of passengers to reach 4.6 million this year, a 25-per-cent growth rate.

To survive the lower passenger traffic due to higher travelling costs, the airline has approached 15 corporate clients to encourage more business travel.

To boost loyalty, the airline has launched a programme paying up to Bt1,800 to compensate passengers whose flights are delayed more than three hours.

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Provinces ordered to be on alert for leptospirosis

The Public Health Ministry has order all provinces to be on alert for the emergence of leptospirosis after it found 587 people were infected and 15 died from the disease.

Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot, the ministry's permanent secretary, said Tuesday most infectious cases were found during the rainy season.

People with cuts or rashes on their legs who wade through floodwater are 15 times more at risk of contracting the disease.

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Airlines to cut long-haul flights to Thailand next year

Several major airlines including Thai Airways International are cutting long-haul flights into Thailand next year in line with a forecast 12-per-cent drop in the number of inbound tourists, said the Association of Thai Travel Agents.

ATTA president Apichart Sankary said that although the Tourism Authority of Thailand targets 17 million visitors next year, only 15 million may arrive.

Starting from today, THAI will suspend its New York-Bangkok service. The company has also reduced flight frequencies, re-routed flights with particular impact on its US operations and introduced other cost-cutting measures.

“Other airlines such as Lufthansa are also considering reducing long-haul flights between Thailand and Europe,” said Apichart.

Thailand is expected to miss this year’s visitor target of 15.7 million. ATTA, which encompasses inbound travel agencies, expects the number to reach only 15 million.

While domestic tourism will be more sluggish than last year due to political conflict, Apichart attributed the lower number of foreign visitors to efforts in Europe and the United States to lure tourists from the Middle East.

Maitree Narukhatpichai, president of Phuket Tourism Association, admitted that foreign tourists’ bookings for the island this month had dropped 15-20 per cent from last year’s level due to political tensions, which were driving away visitors from major markets.

Seni Phuwasethavorn, president of the Koh Samui Tourism Business Association, said the high season would not be as active as last year due to the higher cost of travelling.

For instance, the ferry fare from Surat Thani to the island will soon be increased by 20 per cent. Currently, Samui’s hotel occupancy rate is at 60 per cent, down from 70-80 per cent in the same period last year.

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Cabs stand still as LPG runs short

About one fifth of Bangkok’s taxis had to stay idle Monday after many service stations ran out of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

“There’s nothing to fill these taxis’ tanks,” Siam Taxi Cooperative president Witoon Naewpanich said.

Taxi drivers complained that the sudden shortage had hit them at a time when they usually got more passengers than usual because of the payday period.

Speaking to a traffic radio station, a taxi driver lamented yesterday that his cab was running out of the LPG.

“Please help me find a station that sells LPG. Paying for expensive LPG is better than not having LPG to fill up my cab,” he said.

Witoon said his group would meet with Energy Minister Poonpirom Liptapanlop this afternoon to voice their concern.

“Now, it’s LPG. Soon it could be NGV,” he said.

It is widely speculated that some vendors have been hoarding LPG to profit from the expected price hike once the Energy Ministry floats the price.

“Some people say a litre of LPG will rise by just Bt1 or Bt2. But others say the price may rise by up to Bt10,” Witoon said.

Internal Trade Department directorgeneral Yanyong Phuangrach said his department was conducting surprise inspections of service stations to prevent hoarding.

Yanyong also urged people to report unfair practices on the 1569 hotline.

LPG is a controlled product and sellers are required by law to display the price at their place of business. Failure to do so is punishable by a fine of up to Bt10,000.

The penalty for hoarding is up to seven years in jail and/or a maximum fine of Bt140,000.

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