THAI grounding flights to 38 world cities
Thai Airways International (THAI) has announced that due to the ongoing global outbreak of Covid-19, it was suspending flights to 30 world cities in March and eight European cities from April 1.
The airline attributed intense increase in preventive measures including screening by local Ministries of Public Health and Civil Aviation Organisations as well as national lockdown in several countries in Europe and Asia for the decision
THAI said it was temporarily suspending its operations to the following cities.
Starting Wednesday (March 25): 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.
Domestic flights to Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Krabi will be transferred and operated by THAI Smile.
Starting March 27: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth
The airline also said that starting April 1, it would cancel most of its flights to Europe which are London, Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo, Moscow and Stockholm
THAI had 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.
THAI said it would allow passengers holding THAI and THAI Smile code-share flights air tickets, issued before March 25 with the following date of travel, to convert unused tickets to one-year valid travel voucher without fee and surcharges:
Asian routes during March 25 to May 31; European, Australian and New Zealand routes during April 1 to May 31.
Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) members holding award tickets issued to travel between March 25 and May 31 may fully recredit mileages or change the travel date without any fee or charge with expired miles extended until September 30.
Passengers may check flight schedules and make changes to itineraries themselves on thaiairways.com website. For ticket adjustments or more information, ROP members can contact THAI sales offices or visit thaiairways.com/rop.
THAI will continue to operate cargo service on some routes and will operate charter flights if there are stranded passengers or is requested by government agencies concerned. The company will inform passengers if there is any flight adjustment.