PCT Thailand’s Free Expatriates Blog

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.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Filed under : Thailand

0 Comment »

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.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Filed under : Thailand

0 Comment »

Compare Hotel Prices from 30+ websites on one page | PCT Thailand

Find the cheapest hotels in Thailand or worldwide easily.

PCT Thailand has just started a new website where you can Compare Hotel Prices from 30+ websites on one page, and once you have picked the hotel you want, you may book direct online.

Hotels Combined is a unique free tool that searches multiple hotel reservation websites simultaneously to help you find the lowest rate instantly.

PCT Thailand eliminates the need to search major websites one by one in order to compare prices and availability. Their free service is an amazing time and money saver!

Search by city, country or hotel name.

On the price page you will see their price comparisons, from there you can go on to the Hotel Website and reserve your hotel room direct.

CompareHotelPrices.PattayaCityThailand.net is not a travel agent. They do not sell hotels nor provide reservation services. You cannot make a booking on their website. They are a search engine that finds you the best deal for your accommodation needs.

Once you identify the best priced provider or best deal for you, they link you through to their partner sites to complete your reservation directly on their website.

Please note: Any queries you have regarding reservations, amendments, cancellations or hotel specific information must be directed to their supplier partners, who handle your reservation. Click here to view our list of supplier partners.

Affiliate Program:
If you have your own website you may want to sign up for their affiliate program and forward one of your sub-domains via cname to the Hotels Combined website and have your own “private label” site.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Filed under : Thailand

0 Comment »

Food Institute chief sees need to restructure farm sector

Thailand should restructure its agricultural sector for the overall improvement of production in preparation for an expected heightening of the global food crisis, according to the food industry executive.

Food Institute director Yutthasak Supasorn said the severity of the food crisis was predicted by scientists and economists, who based their calculations on various factors, but on energy prices in particular.

They believed food prices would increase 20-50 times in the next decade.

He said Thailand, unlike many other countries, might not be adversely affected by the crisis because it is a major food producing country

However, the country must restructure its agricultural sector, invest in its production bases to give easier access to the farm sector, and improve the value-added of raw materials used for food production.

Mr. Yutthasak said he believed Thailand would not be affected by the world food price crisis during the next three to five years.

Still, food prices in the country might increase by three to five times in the next decade.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Filed under : Thailand

0 Comment »

Thailand: The Temple Of Gloom | My Sinchew
BANGKOK, THAILAND: Thailands “active support” for the proposed inscription of Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site is strongly highlighted in both words and pictures in Cambodias main application document to Unesco.

The document, a copy of which was received Monday 23 June by The Nation, features photos of Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama engaged in bilateral activities proclaimed to be progress towards reconciliation after decades of territorial dispute.

Disclosure of the document is likely to inflame the ongoing controversy, in which the besieged Samak government is accused of bypassing Parliament and the public alike in making crucial moves that carry possible effects on national sovereignty.

The documents key sections include Cambodias insistence that the temple is under its sovereignty, the temples cultural and historical value, international support for the temples inscription and Thailands virtual support for the nomination.

Whereas the controversy has centred on a joint communique between Thailand and Cambodia signed by Noppadon, the application document is likely to galvanise critics accusing the Samak government of either being naive and exploited by Phnom Penh or conspiring with the neighbouring government in exchange for political vested interests.

While critics have said the joint communique would put Thailand at a legal disadvantage if new territorial disputes arose in the area, the application document to Unesco could be perceived by some as a diplomatic embarrassment for Bangkok.

The Unesco document devotes considerable space to Cambodias legal victory over Thailand in the International Court of Justice, detailing the courts rulings on why the contentious temple belongs to Cambodia. Then, only a few pages apart, the document goes on to highlight Thailands “active support” for inscription.

Samak, whose photo taken during a visit to Phnom Penh in March was played up in the document, was cited as “confirming” Thailands intention to support the inscription, as was Noppadon, whose photo was also given prominence in the document.

The Preah Vihear controversy will place the Samak government under fire in Parliament today, as the opposition Democrats are set to grill the decision virtually to give up Thailands long-lasting sovereignty claims, which persisted even after the world courts ruling.

Key points in Tuesdays 24 June debate will likely include questions on whether the Samak government violated the Constitution in supporting the World Heritage-site push without consulting Parliament and whether it instead should have, for the inscriptions sake, proposed a joint effort in which Thailand and Cambodia approached Unesco on more equal grounds.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Filed under : Thailand

0 Comment »