CheshireTom

Fairly predictable really but the first indication from Thai that the US non-stops will be chopped ........ THAI may cut nonstop flights to US Route revamp could affect summer service By BOONSONG KOSITCHOTETHANA Thai Airways International is considering replacing its direct flights to the United States with one-stop services in the wake of losses and fierce competition. The flag carrier's non-stop Bangkok-New York service is likely to be replaced with flights with stopovers in major Chinese cities such as Beijing or Shanghai, while Bangkok-Los Angeles flights would stop in South Korea. The change in THAI's North American operation is part of a route revamp that could affect the forthcoming summer flight timetable, beginning in April. The new timetable was not expected to see any new routes being introduced, according to THAI president Apinan Sumanaseni. Pressured by shareholders to improve yields, THAI is taking a hard look at the economics and viability of its entire system. Fierce competition on the so-called Kangaroo route _ flights from Australia and New Zealand _ especially by Dubai-based Emirates _ may force THAI to cut flight frequencies, he said. Part of the revamp also involves changing the type of aircraft used. For instance, it may use the B747-400 jumbo jet, A340-600 or B777-ER on US-bound services instead of the A340-500 that holds only 200 passengers. The higher capacity aircraft and the stopovers would help THAI to shore up profitability on those routes. Capt Apinan conceded that THAI stood to lose some appeal by dropping its non-stop North American flights, directed over the North Pole, but it was more worried about the financial burdens these services entailed. THAI operates five direct flights a week to New York and the same number on its Bangkok-Los Angeles route. Its services to Moscow and Johannesburg introduced last year were doing fine, he noted. ... Along with making efforts to reduce operating costs and improve profitability, Capt Apinan said THAI would proceed with the previously proposed establishment of a new wholly owned airline subsidiary, tentatively known as Royal Orchid Airlines, or Euarng Luang in Thai. The new airline would take over THAI's domestic operation, which has been suffering losses, using a more cost-effective and less complicated operating model. The new carrier will be positioned between the conventional premium airline and the low-cost carrier. With the creation of the new airline, THAI would become a fully-fledged international carrier.

Do any of the guys who say the OP overpaid have any links to cheaper rates? 50 quid a night seems to be about the going rate for Aug with a room upgrade and breakfasts thrown in.

Gus, I'm actually in Siem Reap at the moment. I'll be back in UK for a few days when you arrive in LOS but I'll drop you a PM with my phone number in LOS so that we can (eventually) meet up somewhere. Tom

Airport Departure tax from Thai airports will be included in the ticket price for flights departing on or after 1 Feb. It replaces the 500 Baht ticket that you had to buy at the airport. As an aside, UK departure tax increases by 20 quid in economy and 40 quid in biz/premium economy on the same date.

The flights have now been loaded to the CRS. I've not checked any of the online agents but Emirates' own website is offering NCL-BKK at 451 quid incl taxes.

Makavelli, You might want to look at some of the serviced apartments. For around 3-4k Baht you can get a 60-100 sq m apartment with all the facilities you get in a 5* hotel.

Besty, Just got this from my mate .......... Service will commence on 1 Sep. A330-200 in a 2 class configuration. Times - Outbound Depart NCL 13:30, arrive DXB 00:05 the next day. (connect to EK 384, Depart DXB 03:15, arrive BKK 12:25) Inbound - (connect from EK 385, Depart BKK 01:25, Arrive DXB 04:30) Depart DXB 07:20, Arrive NCL 12:10 Flights should be loaded to CRS and available for booking within the next couple of weeks. Hope this helps.

The announcement made by Air Asia was more a business thing than operational details, however, having done so it allows them to allocate/secure funding for the services. There is much more that they didn't say than they actually did ........ they will start flying to Europe, China, India and that's about it. As far as the hoped-for service to Manchester goes it's worth noting: Malaysia has recently pulled out from the route ......... bottom line is that there isn't sufficient First/Biz pax from MAN to justify the service (the same could be said for any route to the Far East with the exceptions of HK and Singapore). Where Air Asia have an advantage is that they will operate to their own low-cost hub at KL and they have extensive links from there particularly to China/Macau which, given the size of the Chinese community in Manchester/Liverpool catchment areas is a big plus since there are no direct flights to any SE Asian hub other than Singapore at the moment. I think the big question is whether they will go non-stop or re-fuel in the middle east. If they go non-stop on a 777er in a two class configuration then I think it will work. It really depends on what aircraft they can get their hands on in the next couple of months. From my own personal choice if they have a decent biz class seat in their premium cabin then I would probably be happy to pay around 800 quid for that. I have no great need for airline food and vintage wines when I fly so I would happily dispense with those if there was a decent saving over the prices offered by Etihad and Qatar. The one thing that does point towards Manchester is the link-up between Air Asia and Man Utd. That in itself would be enough to make lots of folk consider them as an option and could turn out to be a pretty shrewd piece of marketing on the part of Air Asia. I'm sure more will come out in the next 4-8 weeks as to what is going on.

Besty, The situation is that the folk at Newcastle Airport are trying to get Emirates to fly into there and they have been doing so for some considerable time. Their has been no decision or announcement from either Emirates or the Airport, however, the earliest feasible date is 1 September. Emirates expansion is a bit scuppered at the moment due to the situation with the late deliveries of the A380 and there are lots of places all over Europe trying to get a bit of the Emirates pie. Don't expect any confirmation until such time as the auditors from Emirates who are currently with Airbus have done their sums once delivery dates for the A380 have been confirmed. Tom

Agree with the poster re Swiss from MAN. They also do a Thai codeshare so you can get your Star miles with Swiss and fly Thai on the Zurich-Bangkok legs non-stop on their A340s (albeit on a Swiss flight number) rather than the crap 747s used on the LHR routes. Swiss is also the quickest door-to-door option from Manchester.

There were strong rumours about this in MAN a few months back when Malaysia Airlines pulled the plug on their KUL-MAN non-stop service. That service was a code-share with Virgin who effectively lost a link into the kangaroo route and feeder traffic for their Virgin Blue services in Oz/NZ. Malaysia may have held onto its slots and simply sell them on to Virgin/Air Asia and the normal objections by BA/Qantas to any competition would be mute since the service would effectively only be replacing one that already existed and they have both all but abandoned MAN in favour of LHR anyway. As a stand-alone service it is pretty much accepted that the low-cost model doesn't fit into long-haul routes but with the Air Asia connections it is a whole different ball game as a 9:30 p.m departure from MAN would get you into KL around 6 a.m. with the choice of connecting to Air Asia's network (Clark (Angeles), VietNam, Phuket/BKK etc) and back out around lunchtime to arrive in MAN about 19:30. The early-morning feeder traffic back to KL would mean a layover of only 2-4 hours which is acceptable to most. Any service that gives the guys more choice with the option of saving a few bob is welcome IMHO. If they would only would start a service KUL-U-Tapao then the jigsaw would be complete. I'm not sure how EasyJet fits into things in MAN (they fly into Liverpool) but the option of flying KUL-Luton would make seem to make a lot more sense in that respect. Just as a quick add-on ......... it won't be the first time Branson and Fernandes have worked together. Fernandes was Virgin Records financial controller in the late-80s.

I remember EVA as being a lunchtime departure from BKKwhich was no good to me and ended up giving my airmiles to another boardie. Has anyone done Etihad biz class to Manchester? If so, what is the seating like between AUH and MAN? I need to book a quick trip back to MAN in the near future and would opt for Etihad over Qatar if they have a full flat-bed as they do on the AUH-BKK leg.

The connection up north has always been a problem with EVA, particularly during the summer schedule. What are thde times now if they have a 7:30 a.m. arrival back into LHR? Turbo, what's wrong with Gulf Air DUB-BAH-BKK? Only one change, 17 hours total travelling time and you don't have to go through the nightmare called Heathrow.

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Indiscipline, Thanks for that. I'm looking to arrive in Pattaya on 4 Jan and am initially looking for a one-week stay. I will be around for 3 months after that until the end of March of which 6-8 weeks will probably be in Pattaya. Tom

Indiscipline, The owner of the hotel may belong to that breed of Pattaya hoteliers who only respond to e-mails if they are confirming a booking. I tried to book for Jan but, up until now, never received any response or acknowledgement. Tom

Nice to see we agree on something.

Gus, How is it going? Qatar are doing 338 quid incl tax during January ............ Travelmood Asia Offers

To be precise it was part of the pre-production prototype and not a long way away at all from flying it with fare-paying pax ............... and they achieved 87.5% reliability. Simple as that. Still dreaming of relocating to LOS?

"Boeing acknowledged this summer that one prototype fuselage section had to be scrapped after a Janicki-built mandrel leaked. Mike Bair, 787 program chief, insisted Janicki wasn't at fault. Bair said the glitch occurred as Boeing and Janicki experimented with different resin mixes to make the composite plastic more durable. In addition, Peter Janicki said, a supplier substituted ingredients in the resin used to make that mandrel without notifying him. Janicki has so far shipped eight mandrels, and that was the only problematic one. "It was painful for Boeing and certainly painful for us," Janicki said of the incident. "It's a great way to build an airplane. But it's new. And you don't do something new perfect every time." That must be comforting for anybody contemplating flying on the aircraft anytime soon.

I'm sure they confirmed the options so that they appeared as orders in this year's order book. You know how these sad guys on the internet are always accusing them of counting options as orders.

You don't have to .......... fly with EVA. Prices are in line with Thai, same seat pitch in Y class and you get the TV thrown in.

btm, Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but both LAX and SFO on the west coast have already spent the necessary millions to accommodate the A380. SFO is already complete and LAX will be by mid-2007. Did you mention something about reality. And just to prove how spectacularly wrong you can be: "A380 launch customer Singapore Airlines gave the beleaguered aircraft program a boost yesterday by ordering nine more of the type along with six options, bringing to 19 the number of A380s it has on firm order." As for the other main A380 operator into LAX (Qantas): "Australian airline Qantas ordered eight more A380 super jumbo planes from Airbus, taking its total order for the 550 seat plane to 20, Airbus said on Thursday It follows a decision by Singapore Airlines on Wednesday to order nine additional A380s." Maybe them folk at Singapore Airlines and Qantas know something you don't. Can you lay out your bet in plain English .......... I might just take you up on it.

wacmedia, You'll have noticed that the majority of scally's posts are just links to the same old crap that is spewed out all over the internet by Nationalistic Yanks. The argument about whether Airbus receives subsidies is really a mute issue when compared to the well-documented insitutional corruption that is part of Boeing. The only reason the EU taxpayer nonsense is such an issue in the US at the moment is because EADS is bidding for a massive Pentagon order for air-to-air tankers. The trouble for Boeing is that EADS has the much better product (the A330 v the 767) so the only way to take on EADS is to try and get them disqualified from the bidding process, which is what is going on now and is the sole reason for the current US WTO action against Airbus. In short, Boeing (and its political supporters) wants any company that is subject to WTO action to be disqualified from the bidding process. That's what scally refers to as a level playing field. Funnily enough, Boeing had previously all but secured the contract until it was discovered that the cost had been inflated by a few billion dollars which let EADS into the bidding (and led to a USD600m+ fine, a fired CEO and jailed Pentagon procurement official etc etc). At the end of the day that extra couple of billion would have been footed by US taxpayers and went straight to the profits/dividends of the company. So you can expect to see a lot more ranting from across the Atlantic over the next few months as the bidding process comes near to its conclusion. Unfortunately, that's the way US business works and they have a public that is happy to swallow the whole charade hook, line and sinker as so ably demonstrated by the likes of scally and BigD.

Thai will not cancel the A380 unless there is some internal issue within the airline. The simple fact is that the flying time/time difference/airport operating hours between LHR and BKK limits them to two daily windows of opportunity to schedule their aircraft on the route and there is no excess capacity at Heathrow to offer them any additional slots unless Thai was willing to pay some prohibitive premium. As with both Singapore and Qantas, Thai won't get any significant compensation for the delays to the A380 but, more likely, will be offered additional aircraft that are heavily discounted.