Flights to the World Cup city

Thai Airways International will resume Johannesburg service, 16 May, to capitalise on the Fifa World Cup 2010 that kicks off this June. They suspended this service back in January 2009.

But three regional routes are due to be suspended and frequency adjustments will be made on other routes for the duration of summer schedule.

THAI  made a shock decision, last week, to axe its flights to Kathmandu for the summer schedule. The airline has served the destination year-round since the 70s when it pioneered the route for leisure travel.

The travel industry was also shocked that the airline intends to drop Kuwait for the summer season when the Middle East delivers strong growth for the  inbound travel market.

However, when comtacted by TTR Weekly, this afternoon, the airline’s public relations office said “further revisions to the timetable were  in the pipeline” that could  possibly change the status of the Kathmandu and Kuwait services.  TG’s public relations department issued the initial statement that said the two services would be suspended.

Flights to Gaya and Varanasi, in India, will also be suspended, but this is a routine decision as the route serves mainly Buddhist pilgrims, who visit the sacred sites connected to Buddhism during November to March.

THAI will serve Johannesburg four times a week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday using a Boeing777-200ERs. The airline will also consider extending service to Cape Town after discussions with Star Alliance partner, South African Airways, on code-share options for flights to South America.

Summer schedule changes are effective from 28 March until 30 October. The daily service between Bangkok and Los Angeles will be maintained, while the Bangkok-Oslo route will be served by five flights weekly instead of daily. The Bangkok to Moscow service will be reduced from four to three flights a week.

On regional routes Penang gets an increase from five flights a week to daily. Frequencies on the Bangkok-Busan route will be reduced from four to three flights a week.

Also, THAI will change three  other services.  The  Hong Kong-Phuket-Bangkok  services will be a non-stop Hong Kong-Phuket, without a stop in Bangkok.   Bangkok-Hong Kong services will not extend to Taipei.  The  Bangkok-Manila-Osaka  will turn around in Manila, without extending to Osaka.