Thai Airways International Flights To Remain Grounded For The Entire Month Of August

Bankrupt carrier Thai Airways has just published more bad news, namely that their fleet will remain grounded and not operate any international flight until at least September 1, 2020.

Thai Airways has their international fleet grounded since late March with some domestic flights having resumed service while the carrier formally entered into bankruptcy protection last month.

With the exception of a very few repatriation flights and some “special” flights carrying a certain someone to Switzerland there have been no Thai Airways planes at international airports since spring.

In late April I wrote about rumors that Thai Airways could remain grounded until October which was publicly denied by TG at the time. They had originally planned to resume international flights by July 1 but that has been pushed to August 1 and now another month into September.

In the meanwhile Thai Airways has informed customers they are not in the position to refund any money paid for tickets at the moment. I’m sure many customers who had booked TG flight to leave Thailand in June and August will now be affected by this as well.

You can access this latest announcement by Thai Airways on their UK website.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, and the continuous immigration restrictions and governmental measures imposed by several countries, THAI has been forced to extended the temporary suspension of its international operations until the end of August 2020.

We appreciate the continuous disruption and inconvenience this may cause to passengers and truly apologise for this.

We understand that passengers may have questions about changes to bookings. We are trying our best to respond to all queries, but all our teams are extremely busy at present which has greatly affected our response time. Please follow this link for our latest service update.

If your flight has been cancelled, we are currently in the process of advising you or your travel agent (if you booked through a third party) accordingly. Please ensure you check the status of your flight(s) through the “My Booking” section of our website. …

The Thailand based website of Thai Airways ironically has no detailed information about this.

Thai Airways plans the following connections beginning September 1st, however I’d take that with a grain of salt at this point.

Planned operation for September/October 2020 as of 08JUL200 as follows. Various travel restrictions continue to impact the carrier’s planned service resumption and operation.

Bangkok – Auckland eff 02SEP20 3 weekly 787-9
Bangkok – Beijing Capital eff 02SEP20 2 weekly 777-300ER
Bangkok – Brisbane eff 02SEP20 3 weekly 777-200ER
Bangkok – Brussels eff 01SEP20 3 weekly A350-900XWB
Bangkok – Copenhagen eff 01SEP20 1 daily 777-300ER (5 of 7 weekly for most fare classes)
Bangkok – Delhi eff 01SEP20 1 daily 777-300
Bangkok – Denpasar eff 01SEP20 3 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Dhaka eff 01SEP20 5 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Frankfurt eff 01SEP20 1 daily A380
Bangkok – Guangzhou eff 03SEP20 2 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Hanoi eff 01SEP20 1 daily A330-300
Bangkok – Ho Chi Minh City eff 01SEP20 1 daily A330-300
Bangkok – Hong Kong eff 01SEP20 1 daily A330-300
Bangkok – Islamabad eff 02SEP20 4 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Jakarta eff 02SEP20 3 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Karachi eff 02SEP20 4 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Kuala Lumpur eff 02SEP20 5 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Lahore eff 01SEP20 4 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – London Heathrow eff 01SEP20 1 daily 777-300ER
Bangkok – Manila eff 02SEP20 4 weekly 777-300
Bangkok – Melbourne eff 02SEP20 5 weekly A350-900XWB
Bangkok – Munich eff 02SEP20 5 weekly 777-300ER
Bangkok – Nagoya eff 03SEP20 3 weekly A350-900XWB
Bangkok – Osaka Kansai eff 02SEP20 3 weekly 777-200ER
Bangkok – Paris CDG eff 01SEP20 3 weekly 777-300ER
Bangkok – Perth eff 02SEP20 3 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Phnom Penh eff 01SEP20 1 daily A330-300
Bangkok – Seoul Incheon eff 01SEP20 6 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Shanghai Pu Dong eff 02SEP20 2 weekly 777-300ER
Bangkok – Singapore eff 02SEP20 4 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Sydney eff 01SEP20 5 weekly 777-300ER
Bangkok – Taipei Taoyuan eff 01SEP20 1 daily 777-200ER
Bangkok – Tokyo Haneda eff 02SEP20 4 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Tokyo Narita eff 01SEP20 4 weekly A330-300
Bangkok – Vientiane eff 01SEP20 1 daily A330-300
Bangkok – Yangon eff 01SEP20 1 daily A330-300
Bangkok – Zurich eff 01SEP20 4 weekly 777-300ER

This doesn’t look like a lot but now that TG has already pushed back their operations several times I’d not buy a ticket from them under any circumstances.

Who knows when (if) you’ll ever see your money again?

I’ve talked to some people working for Thai Airways and within the company they are again talking about no flights before October.

Conclusion

Thai Airways really is a hot mess these days. Of course their operations are contingent upon Thailand’s border policy and considering that there is currently no plan in place to re-open the country after the travel bubble concept has been canned a second time it makes very little sense for TG to schedule any flights right now.

There are plenty of commercial flights leaving Thailand on a daily/weekly basis which make it possible for essential travel and flow of goods to function. If Thai Airways were to start flying under these circumstances most of the flights would go almost empty and the airline is already bankrupt.