25 Mar, 2020
Thai Airways International Plc (THAI) will suspend several international flights in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
From Wednesday, the national carrier will temporarily stop services to Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo (Narita and Haneda), Osaka, Nagoya, Seoul, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Yangon, Singapore, Jakarta, Denpasar, Kunming, Xiamen, Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Karachi, Kathmandu, Lahore, Dhaka, Islamabad, and Colombo.
THAI Smile, its subsidiary, will take over domestic flights to Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Krabi provinces.
From Friday, THAI will suspend its flights to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.
From April 1, it will cancel most of its flights to Europe — London, Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo, Moscow, and Stockholm.
THAI previously suspended flights to Sendai, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Busan, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Milan, Vienna, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Muscat, Dubai, and Auckland.
Passengers holding THAI and THAI Smile code-share flights air tickets issued before March 25 may convert unused tickets to travel vouchers, valid for one year, without fee and surcharges.
Eligible tickets must be for travel from March 25 to May 31 this year on Asian routes, and from April 1 to May 31 on European, Australian and New Zealand routes.
Royal Orchid Plus members with award tickets for travel from March 25 to May 31 May fully re-credit mileages or change the travel dates without any fee or charge, with expired miles extended until Sept 30.
THAI still operates cargo service on some routes and will operate charter flights if there are stranded passengers or requested by government agencies.
THAI has now cancelled all flights in the Asia-Pacific region (with the exception of Cambodia) starting from Wednesday and will suspend all Europe routes from April 1.
The cancellations will last until May 30, according to information released by THAI offices in Singapore and Vietnam.
The flight cancellations prompted Thai consulate staff in Ho Chi Minh to travel to Tan Son Nhat airport on Tuesday evening to help Thai passengers who were required to obtain certification from the consulate before being able to return to Thailand.
However, in Cambodia, flight cancellations will not begin until April 1, according to information provided to the Bangkok Post by the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh.
