SINGAPORE, 26 July 2022: Scoot celebrates its 10th Anniversary by hosting its largest flight ticket giveaway, 10,000 free tickets to anywhere across the airline’s network.
Dubbed the ‘This Is How We Party giveaway’, 10 lucky passengers on selected Scoot flights up to 31 August will each win a return trip or their next flight out on Scoot.
The giveaway span July and August for lucky winners on selected outbound flights from Singapore. Passengers travelling on a Scoot flight up to 31 August could be one of the lucky winners, randomly selected by cabin crew onboard these ‘Scootitude’ flights through a lucky draw.
For short-haul flights (flight travel time not exceeding three hours), passengers will be given a scratch card for a chance to win tickets.
The ticket giveaway will also run on select regional radio stations and Scoot’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
A decade ago, Scoot began with just one aircraft in its flee serving Sydney. It now serves a network of 72 destinations1 across 16 countries and territories, spanning Southeast Asia, North Asia, India, Australia and Europe.
SINGAPORE, 25 July 2022: Jetstar’s flights between Tokyo and Cairns are back after nearly two and a half years, with the airline preparing to welcome thousands of visitors from Japan into tropical north Queensland each week.
While restrictions remain for independent tourists from Australia to Japan, Japanese citizens can now travel freely between the two countries, driving strong demand for Jetstar’s relaunch of direct services to Cairns.
The airline is now operating up to five return flights per week between Cairns and Narita (Tokyo), bringing up to 1,600 people into Australia from Japan every week and providing an important boost to local tourism.
Jetstar Group CEO Gareth Evans called the return of the Cairns – Tokyo flights another important milestone in rebuilding Jetstar’s international network.
“Australia has always been a popular destination for Japanese travellers, and we’re excited to reconnect the two countries, providing a significant tourism boost to the local Cairns community and Queensland more broadly,” Evans said.
“Jetstar is the first Australian carrier to relaunch flights between Australia and Japan, and we’re already seeing a lot of pent-up demand from Japanese travellers eager to visit Australia.
“Japan has also always been a popular destination for Australians, and we look forward to welcoming an announcement from the Japanese Government about easing international restrictions, which will allow two-way travel between the two countries.”
Jetstar will resume services between Cairns and Osaka (Kansai) on 26 July.
BANGKOK, 25 July 2022: Bangkok Airways resumes direct daily flights between Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport and Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital starting on 1 August.
The airline confirmed the relaunch of services to Yangon on its Facebook Page at the weekend.
Bangkok Airways’ Facebook promotion for the Yangon Flight.
Flight schedule
Flight PG703 departs Bangkok at 1630 and arrives in Yangon at 1720. Flight PG704 departs Yangon at 1805 and arrives in Bangkok at 2005.
To launch the service, the airline is promoting a THB5,790 roundtrip fare for bookings made up to 31 October. The airfare is valid for travel from 1 August to 31 October at the close of the summer timetable. All budget class passengers get a 20 kg luggage allowance and entry to the airline’s “boutique Lounge” for snacks and drinks before boarding.
DUBAI, 25 July 2022: Emirates will increase flights to and from London Gatwick airport with the addition of a third daily flight, effective 27 July until 3 August 2022.
This third daily flight will help serve high demand from customers travelling to and from London this summer. It will also provide additional seats to accommodate Emirates passengers affected by capacity adjustments on flights from London Heathrow, which will be made to help ease operational pressures at the airport. Emirates’ customers impacted by capacity adjustments at London Heathrow will be contacted directly by the airline or their travel agent.
The airline works closely with its travel partners to re-accommodate any impacted bookings and ensures smooth onward flight connections for customers to reach their planned destination.
The additional daily flight to London Gatwick will be operated by a wide-body Emirates Boeing 777 aircraft offering seats in First, Business and Economy class. Flights EK011 and EK012 will operate to and out of London Gatwick in the morning.
Emirates is grateful for the support of London Gatwick Airport, along with other partners on the ground who have been working closely with the airline to secure sufficient ground handling resources to deal with the additional demand and provide passengers with a smooth and reliable journey.
Emirates will continue to operate its six daily flights to/from London Heathrow during this period, and its planned re-start of daily services to London Stansted will commence on 1 August.
SONGKHLA, 25 July 2022: Bangkok Airways, led by Amornrat Kongsawat, vice president – sales and acting vice president – Marketing (6th from left) and Bangkok Airways executives, recently held a ceremony for the inaugural flights on two routes of Bangkok-Hat Yai and Samui-Hat Yai, to expand tourism and trade channels, and connect key regional economic and trade hubs.
They were welcomed by Sureeyapan Na Songkhla, Vice Governor of Songkhla Province (7th from left), Sutthipong Klai-Udom, Deputy Governor of Surat Thani Province (5th from left), Pawet Sean-Un, Deputy General Manager of Hatyai International Airport (3rd from left), Suphakarn Yodchun, Director – Tourism Authority of Thailand Koh Samui, Koh Tao and Koh Pha-Ngan Office (4th from right) and representatives of the Songkhla and Samui (Surat Thani) network of tourist businesses at Hat Yai Airport, Songkhla province.
New service to Hat Yai from Samui plus a flight from Bangkok to the southern commercial town.
SINGAPORE, 25 July 2022: The Canadian government has reinstated random Covid-19 testing for passengers entering four major airports, a move that could strain the country’s already stretched airline sector and dampen demand for international travel to Canada.
Canada still requires passengers to be fully vaccinated to enter the country, but it lifted all testing requirements for arriving vaccinated passengers last month. Now random testing has been mandated again for passengers arriving at Calgary (YYC), Montreal (YUL), Toronto Pearson (YYZ) and Vancouver (YVR) airports.
However, the testing has been moved off the airport complex, with travellers selected for testing told to visit government-approved sites such as a pharmacy the day after their arrival. If a passenger tests positive, they will be required to quarantine for 10 days.
Passengers flying to Canada must download the ArriveCAN app 72 hours before departure. Once a passenger clears customs, they will get a message sent to the app within 15 minutes, letting them know they have been randomly selected for testing. The app will help passengers find a testing site and book an appointment,
For passengers connecting at the four airports to fly to another domestic airport, testing can be done at the final destination, according to the Canadian government.
SINGAPORE, 25 July 2022: British Airways has dropped plans to revive direct flights to Bangkok from its London base this coming October, having informed tour operators the suspension will continue to the end of March 2023 at the earliest.
The news has prompted officials at Thai Airways International to consider offering charter flights to UK tour operators to ensure there are enough flights to meet leisure travel demand between the UK and popular Thai destinations; Bangkok and Phuket.
Earlier, TTG Media UK said continuing the suspension of BA flights to Thailand during the winter timetable from October 2022 to March 2023 had dealt a blow to tour operators hoping to use BA flights to serve their holiday clients during the winter peak season.
However, at the weekend, THAI officials were exploring options to offer charter flights to tour operators planning to sell holiday packages to Thailand during the winter.
British Airways announced earlier in the year that it would resume direct flights from Heathrow to Thailand by late October but has since decided to extend the suspension possibly until March 2023.
Last week, British Airways announced that 10,300 flights would be cancelled between now and the end of October. According to a Times report, the airline has already taken close to 1,000 flights off its schedule for July, affecting up to 170,000 passengers.
UK holidaymakers can still buy flights on the BA website but that will involve a stop in Doha in Qatar, where they will transfer to a Qatar Airways flight to either Bangkok or Phuket.
Thai Airways International and EVA Air are the only airlines offering direct flights from Bangkok to Heathrow London.
Thailand will also lose another service out of London to Bangkok offered by Singapore’s low-cost airline Scoot. It has been flying from its Singapore base to Gatwick London with a stop in Bangkok in both directions since March. Popular with budget travellers, the Gatwick – Bangkok – Gatwick sectors will drop out of its website’s booking options on 17 August but should be bookable at the end of October.
HONG KONG, 25 July 2022: Cathay Pacific’s June traffic figures continued to reflect the positive impact following adjustments to travel restrictions and quarantine requirements in Hong Kong, notably the circuit-breaker mechanism, effective from 1 June.
Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said: “As sentiment for travel continued to improve, we resumed more flights to more destinations. We deployed additional passenger flight capacity – about 170% more than we did in May – to meet the demand. However, we still only operated about 11% of our pre-pandemic capacity. Load factor increased to 67%, and on average, we carried more than 5,000 passengers daily.
“The additional flights we operated helped provide greater connectivity for our transit passengers, notably from the Chinese Mainland. We also saw increased demand for flights between the UK and Australia and between the US and the Philippines. As is typical for June, demand for student travel into Hong Kong was strong, and our flights from the UK averaged high load factors of 93%. We also resumed flights to Auckland in June, which saw good demand not only to and from Hong Kong but also between New Zealand and the UK as well as India. On the other hand, our flights to the Chinese Mainland remained limited by capacity restrictions relating to anti-pandemic measures there.”
Cathay Pacific carried 150,077 passengers last month, an increase of 269.2% compared to June 2021 but a 95.2% decrease compared to the pre-pandemic level in June 2019.
The month’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) increased 320.2% year-on-year, but were down 91.7% versus June 2019. Passenger load factor increased by 45.3 percentage points to 67%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 36.2% year-on-year, but decreased by 89.3% compared with June 2019 levels. In the first six months of 2022, the number of passengers carried increased by 113.5% against a 26.6% decrease in capacity and a 129.8% increase in RPKs, as compared to the same period for 2021.
Outlook
Lam commented on the business outlook: “Looking ahead, we welcome the Hong Kong SAR Government’s recent decision to suspend the circuit-breaker mechanism effective 7 July, which will help provide customers with far greater certainty and confidence when flying to and transiting via Hong Kong. We are also encouraged that the Government is considering possible adjustments to the number of days inbound travellers will need to spend in designated quarantine hotels after arriving in Hong Kong. We continue to actively add back flight capacity as we work to rebuild our hub and network.
“On the passenger side, we expect travel sentiment to improve over the coming months. Assuming current travel and operating restrictions at the time of this report remain unchanged, we anticipate we will be able to operate up to about a quarter of our pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity levels by the end of the year. The pandemic situation remains highly dynamic, and we will need to remain agile with regard to managing our flight capacity.
“We have enjoyed improved cash performance since the further adjustments in the travel restrictions and quarantine requirements came into effect on 1 May. We expect that the anticipated capacity increases will continue to positively impact our monthly operating cash burn, so we are targeting to be operating cash generative going forward.”
KUCHING 22 July 2022: The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) Convention 2022 is scheduled to be held in Sarawak for the first time from 20 to 23 September.
Around 700 TAFI members from India are expected to attend the TAFI Convention 2022 hosted by the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak (MTCP), Tourism Malaysia (TM), Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) and Business Events (BE) Sarawak.
Themed “Build Back Better” to strengthen the tourism industry and move towards a resilient economic recovery, the convention will highlight sustainability, advanced greening efforts, conservation and responsible tourism during its sessions.
Recently, the TAFI managing committee visited Kuching to conduct multiple site inspections and visit the Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak (MTCP), YB Dato Sri Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
During the meeting, YB Dato Sri Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah stated his hope that the convention would be a catalyst to entice more visitors from India to Sarawak in the near future.
“The TAFI Convention’s theme this year, ‘Build Back Better’, is very much aligned with our post-COVID-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030 with Sarawak’s aspiration to empower the community and to ensure a sustainable environment, post-Covid. We look forward to organising this event with TAFI, with the sustainability factor at the convention’s heart,” he added.
TAFI president Ajay Prakah said: “The Indian market is growing, and they are constantly looking for newer destinations, products and experiences, and Sarawak has a great potential to become a popular destination in the Indian market because today’s generation is concerned about the planet, conservation and sustainability. With the support of Tourism Malaysia, Sarawak Tourism Board and Business Events Sarawak, I think we will have a wonderful convention and look forward to it.”
Representing the Travel Trade in India, TAFI is a progressive and vibrant association with a nationwide membership base of 1,400 members and growing. Most TAFI members are IATA Accredited agents and contribute to more than 75% of the outbound business in India.
BANGKOK, 22 July 2022: Centara Hotels & Resorts, Thailand’s leading hotel operator, is offering travellers a chance to enjoy big savings with the Centara Pre-Purchased Nights deal for hotels and resorts across Thailand.
From now to 15 October 2022, guests can pre-purchase 12 nights which will remain valid for one year and can be redeemed at participating Centara Grand, Centara, Centra by Centara, and COSI hotels and resorts.
Special bulk discount rates start from just THB 825 per room per night and include free daily breakfast for two people, while up to two children can stay for free. Centara The 1 members can enjoy an additional discount of 5% on top of the already reduced price and can also purchase the package with points or a combination of cash and points. Buyers can also enjoy a 0% interest credit card payment plan for three months.
The pre-purchased nights can be used on consecutive nights or on separate trips and can even be shared with friends and loved ones. Guests can redeem pre-purchased nights at any hotel within the same pricing tier and are perfect for a dynamic city escape or a family getaway on a secluded island.
The discounted rates can be used across 39 Centara hotels and resorts across Thailand, including Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Phuket, Krabi, Hua Hin and Udon Thani. Tiers start at THB825 per night for COSI hotels, with Centra by Centara hotels available for THB1,325 per night, Centara properties for THB1,908 per night, Centara Grand for THB3,325 per night, and Centara Grand suites and villas at THB5,575 for each night.
