Udon Thani Thailand Forum - Udon Thani, Thailand

From The Nation
By Kingsley Wijayasinha


Thai Airways International Plc (THAI) will raise the fuel surcharge rate on 58 routes starting from September 14 due to the increasing fuel prices.

THAI president Sumeth Damrongchaitham said the decision was made after a study of internal and external factors including sharply rising fuel costs, which the airline has been absorbing while competitor airlines have begun to raise their prices. He was confident that the surcharge increase would not affect ticket sales especially during the tourism season in the final quarter of the year when cabin factor usually exceeds 80 per cent.

“Oil prices have surged dramatically, and there are signs that it will continue [to rise],” he said, adding that jet fuel makes up 30 per cent of the airline’s annual costs. “THAI is in the middle of risk management, but the surcharge increase is seen as a positive move especially in terms of competition. If we raise the surcharge and that affects ticket prices, preventing us from selling tickets, it is Thai International that will feel the effects.”

Sumeth added that the surcharge hike would help THAI compete against other airlines with full service capability. “In the past we had to bear very high costs but our yield is higher than in previous years and higher than the average of other airlines.”

However, THAI customers may think otherwise, as the new ticket prices have been found to be higher by Bt768 on short economy seat flights (Yangon, Penang, Vientiane, Hanoi and Phnom Penh), while business passengers will have to cough up an additional Bt1,152 and first-class passengers Bt1,280.

The hike is even more on longer flights – Bt2,112 to Bt3,712 for (economy – first class) flights to and from New Delhi, Karachi, Dubai, Shanghai and Beijing.

Travellers to Japan will have to pay an additional Bt2,560 to Bt4,800 while the load on London passengers will be even higher at Bt9,280 to Bt12,800.

Meanwhile, THAI and Rolls-Royce have declared open the world’s first research and development project for Trent XWB jet engines. The event was presided over by Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith.

The two-year project is targeted at further testing the Trent XWB-97 engine that was first used in the Airbus A350-1000 in February this year. “This will enable Rolls-Royce to find the strengths and weaknesses of this engine throughout its life span,” said Surachai Piencharoensak, THAI executive vice president, Technical Department.

THAI’s Technical Department is the first to join hands with Rolls-Royce to participate in Trent XWB engine development with real flight simulation at THAI’s Technical Department. Engine testing is conducted regularly at the test cell in order to improve engine efficiency, to comprehend various limitations to engine usage, product development and inspection plans, and for quality technical maintenance. This marks the first-ever cooperation of its kind that Rolls-Royce has forged with any customer.

Dominic Horwood, Rolls-Royce chief customer officer for civil aerospace, said the collaboration would allow Rolls-Royce to carry out full-scale operations in Thailand ranging from production, maintenance, repair and overhaul, and research and development. He said the company invests US$100 million (Bt3.3 billion) in Thailand annually in order to support its production line.

In 2020, both companies will also co-develop technological capability for maintaining the Trent 700 jet engine to the overhaul level, giving THAI the status of authorised maintenance centre for these engines.


Courtesy of The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... e/30353893

IMO Thai's ticket pricing is well above its competitors now and they still loose money.

But that's the than way all over if losing money put prices up they don't understand volume and low prices makes much more money in the long run. All the oil companies only make 1 to 2 baht per Ltr of petrol sold but guess what volume makes that small profit into billions of dollars

Part of the problem is that they perceive that they give a premium service which of course they don't, their food is no better and their seats are just as uncomfortable and cramped as anyone's else, they even charge more on the short haul, can't for the life of me understand why.

the prices for Thai shown in various web sites always seems to be significantly higher than some of the competition..

Funny how they justify putting up prices because of increasing fuel costs, yet the baht is one of the strongest currencies.

viewtopic.php?p=522758#p522758

Noted that aviation fuel is usually priced in US dollars. The rate there is currently 32 baht to the dollar, which seems stable/strong enough.

FrazeeDK wrote: ↑

September 9, 2018, 11:18 am

the prices for Thai shown in various web sites always seems to be significantly higher than some of the competition..

Yeah on their website OR www. Skyscanner.com From BKK-LHR They are nearly always the MOST Expensive....

Had a Mate fly on their A380 LHR-BKK Last Week said it was ALMOST Empty about 40% load factor...

AS of now most if not all airlines have added fuel surcharge to their tickets... but they still advertise their lower fares then when you check the final billing, the fuel surcharge appears. I just booked tickets on ANA and the fuel surcharge was in line with Thai, i.e 3 800 B...

Wife says the reason Thai Air is losing money is due to all the free tickets they give to the company big shots, government officials and their families.

I always try and fly Thai or another star alliance airline, I like their service. Yes there are other airlines that may be better on some things but it's all swings and roundabouts. As for the food standard, not sure why some think its substandard.
The price of fuel does go up and the passenger will pay. If you dont like it just move on and fly with some one else to save your money, anyway they cant be all bad, Thai won a few airline awards this year 2018.

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI), received three Skytrax 2018 World Airline Awards as the World’s Best Economy Class,
World’s Best Airline Lounge Spa,
Best Economy Class Onboard Catering.

One thing i would question with all the airlines is why don't these supposed new fuel efficient planes cut the cost.

I'll be flying Thai to PKG this week, business class. Again. Check in at the gate is mayhem... very poorly thought out and managed. IMHO, biz class food is not good. What premium service? They have been over priced and overrated for years. Ownership and upper management responsible, which means nothing will change.

Barney wrote: ↑

September 10, 2018, 9:30 am

I always try and fly Thai or another star alliance airline, I like their service. Yes there are other airlines that may be better on some things but it's all swings and roundabouts. As for the food standard, not sure why some think its substandard.
The price of fuel does go up and the passenger will pay. If you dont like it just move on and fly with some one else to save your money, anyway they cant be all bad, Thai won a few airline awards this year 2018.

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI), received three Skytrax 2018 World Airline Awards as the World’s Best Economy Class,
World’s Best Airline Lounge Spa,
Best Economy Class Onboard Catering.

One thing i would question with all the airlines is why don't these supposed new fuel efficient planes cut the cost.

I tried Oman Air a few times.

Excellent service in flight and a great lounge in Muscat, much much better than the Thai Airways lounge

Price was much cheaper than Qatar Air to Thailand

runrunshaw wrote: ↑

September 10, 2018, 9:36 am

I'll be flying Thai to PKG this week, business class. Again. Check in at the gate is mayhem... very poorly thought out and managed. IMHO, biz class food is not good. What premium service? They have been over priced and overrated for years. Ownership and upper management responsible, which means nothing will change.

I didn't know THAI flew to Pangkor. Is that a direct flight?

Barney wrote: ↑

September 10, 2018, 9:30 am

I always try and fly Thai or another star alliance airline, I like their service. Yes there are other airlines that may be better on some things but it's all swings and roundabouts. As for the food standard, not sure why some think its substandard.
The price of fuel does go up and the passenger will pay. If you dont like it just move on and fly with some one else to save your money, anyway they cant be all bad, Thai won a few airline awards this year 2018.

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI), received three Skytrax 2018 World Airline Awards as the World’s Best Economy Class,
World’s Best Airline Lounge Spa,
Best Economy Class Onboard Catering.

One thing i would question with all the airlines is why don't these supposed new fuel efficient planes cut the cost.

Some just like to slag off THAI because it 'goes with the territory'. Some will drag up some personal discomfort or excruciating rip-off that may have happened 25 years ago while flying out of Don Meuang as relevant evidence.

There's certainly other, cheaper and better airlines to chose from since like most national carriers, they do suck more than most. I am in infrequent THAI flyer (except for domestic hops) but I have 2 high spots with THAI. One was the gracious concern and free upgrade when they learned I was flying home after the sudden death of my father. The other was on their excellent but long-discontinued non-stops to LAX where in order to be able to fly it non-stop with the gas-guzzling A340-600's, the seat pitch in Coach was around 38" and maximum permitted pax load (weight) was around 60%. Service was awesome.

Could be worse though, could be like Alitalia. Beggars belief how The Pope accepts those buggers for his global gadabouts even if it is all free.

Just found this, report due out tomorrow.

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news ... round-plan

Thai Airways to come up with yet another turnaround plan

"Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) will present a new turnaround plan to the State Enterprises Policy Commission on September 12, the Bangkok Post has reported.

The new plan will focus on improving the carrier's premium product in a bid to become one of the top five airlines in the world. Among the leaked proposals is a cooperation with Michelin-rated street food vendors from Bangkok to improve the quality of the on-board catering.

In terms of its business strategy, the Thai flag carrier will look into its cooperation with Thai Smile (WE, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi), its fully-owned regional subsidiary, and Nok Air (DD, Bangkok Don Mueang), an LCC in which Thai holds a 21.8% stake. The group is mulling launching travel packages for foreigners visiting Thailand which would include an international flight operated by the mainline unit and domestic services to secondary regional cities onboard Thai Smile or Nok Air.

Chairman Ekniti Nitithanprapas also said that Thai Airways could take part in a new round of financing for financially struggling Nok Air, but only if other shareholders also approve the new plan. Thai Airways is the second-largest shareholder of the LCC after the Jurangkool family who collectively owns 49.34% of shares.

Thai Airways itself has been financially struggling for a number of years. In 2017, the carrier lost THB2.86 billion bahts (USD87.4 million). It barely broke even in 2016, but posted a net loss in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

The junta-run State Enterprises Policy Commission listed Thai Airways as one of six state-owned firms in urgent need for a turnaround. Among the other five is the Thai national railway operator and the Bangkok urban transport authority."

All a bit like shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic IMHO.

All I know is that I am flying tonight to BKK

pipoz4444

tamada wrote: ↑

September 11, 2018, 2:39 pm

runrunshaw wrote: ↑

September 10, 2018, 9:36 am

I'll be flying Thai to PKG this week, business class. Again. Check in at the gate is mayhem... very poorly thought out and managed. IMHO, biz class food is not good. What premium service? They have been over priced and overrated for years. Ownership and upper management responsible, which means nothing will change.

I didn't know THAI flew to Pangkor. Is that a direct flight?

My typo. PEK is the airline code for Beijing, not PKG. For this non-stop flight at Suvarnabhumi, Thai Airways doesn't give gate announcements in Chinese, only Thai and English, even though 95% of the travelers on the flight appear to be Chinese. Since they can't understand the announcements, they angrily gang press the gate, making it impossible for families traveling with children and the elderly to board first. As a business class flyer, I didn't even try for pre-boarding. The hordes of Chinese--and I've seen this many times--won't let anyone get past them.

The twenty-something female Thai ground staff could care less--they're too busy taking selfies and checking their LINE and FB messages. And once on board the aircraft, the flight attendants in biz class cared even less, so I stopped mentioning it to them. This is how Thai Airways manages the flights from their home hub city, Bangkok, to a major foreign capital, Beijing. That tells you quite a lot about their management.

runrunshaw wrote: ↑

September 11, 2018, 3:17 pm

tamada wrote: ↑

September 11, 2018, 2:39 pm

runrunshaw wrote: ↑

September 10, 2018, 9:36 am

I'll be flying Thai to PKG this week, business class. Again. Check in at the gate is mayhem... very poorly thought out and managed. IMHO, biz class food is not good. What premium service? They have been over priced and overrated for years. Ownership and upper management responsible, which means nothing will change.

I didn't know THAI flew to Pangkor. Is that a direct flight?

My typo. PEK is the airline code for Beijing, not PKG. For this non-stop flight at Suvarnabhumi, Thai Airways doesn't give gate announcements in Chinese, only Thai and English, even though 95% of the travelers on the flight appear to be Chinese. Since they can't understand the announcements, they angrily gang press the gate, making it impossible for families traveling with children and the elderly to board first. As a business class flyer, I didn't even try for pre-boarding. The hordes of Chinese--and I've seen this many times--won't let anyone get past them.

The twenty-something female Thai ground staff could care less--they're too busy taking selfies and checking their LINE and FB messages. And once on board the aircraft, the flight attendants in biz class cared even less, so I stopped mentioning it to them. This is how Thai Airways manages the flights from their home hub city, Bangkok, to a major foreign capital, Beijing. That tells you quite a lot about their management.

Agree runrunshaw about the chinese mass rush getting on at any airport. But on topic did the price of the ticket go up? Or if your like me and try and travel BC where evr possible it won't matter just to get a way from cattle class.
I'll assume you have flown into Beijing before? If not good luck with the chinese lines at the other end going through immigration. It is hit and miss usually in a negative way. Did a number in outs through Beijing and then luckily later flew threw Tianjin, easy as down there.

Barney wrote: ↑

September 11, 2018, 5:54 pm

Agree runrunshaw about the chinese mass rush getting on at any airport. But on topic did the price of the ticket go up? Or if your like me and try and travel BC where evr possible it won't matter just to get a way from cattle class.
I'll assume you have flown into Beijing before? If not good luck with the chinese lines at the other end going through immigration. It is hit and miss usually in a negative way. Did a number in outs through Beijing and then luckily later flew threw Tianjin, easy as down there.

Barney, my mention of the Chinese blocking the gate was not a criticism of the Chinese passengers (although there is plenty to criticize), and I believe it was exactly on topic; the chaos at the gate was a result of poor management. Good management starts at the top. Poor management is why Thai ticket prices are going up. Poor management is why Thai, which 20 years ago was a very good airline, is now an over-priced airline in decline.

Fuel price increases are always a good excuse for airlines to add a surcharge or increase the price. But Thai hasn't needed such an excuse in the past, have they? I often fly BKK-LAX, and Thai is generally 3 TIMES higher for an economy class ticket, than say one of the Chinese or Taiwanese airlines.

Thai Airways has been in huge financial trouble for YEARS. Hundred of articles have appeared on the business pages of newspapers around the world on this. The root is the Thai oligarch owner--a big-ego type who spent lavishly on marquee properties around the world, etc etc, and basically ran the airline into the ground, no pun intended. This guy has been forced by the Thai government to sell off unneeded assets and get the house in order, but can't seem to do so, creating a national embarrassment. The only direction their ticket prices will go is up, regardless of the cost of fuel.

Just a few links here:
https://www.eturbonews.com/179191/thai- ... ial-losses
https://loyaltylobby.com/2015/10/21/tha ... e-airline/
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Thai-A ... ompetition

Juicier articles can be found elsewhere, but it's easy to fill in the blanks.

Barney, you are certainly right about Beijing Immigration. I have a ten-year Chinese visa and fly to Beijing frequently. There is no fast track lane at immigration for first or business class passengers: only diplomats or APEC card holders can use it, so perhaps Tianjin is an option.

I can't speak to the cost of my current ticket since it was purchased using a corporate travel agent some time ago and would not reflect any recent price increases on the part of Thai Airways due to fuel costs.

I used to love Thai and flew them whenever I could. Now, I generally don't even bother considering them.

runrunshaw wrote: ↑

September 11, 2018, 3:17 pm

tamada wrote: ↑

September 11, 2018, 2:39 pm

runrunshaw wrote: ↑

September 10, 2018, 9:36 am

I'll be flying Thai to PKG this week, business class. Again. Check in at the gate is mayhem... very poorly thought out and managed. IMHO, biz class food is not good. What premium service? They have been over priced and overrated for years. Ownership and upper management responsible, which means nothing will change.

I didn't know THAI flew to Pangkor. Is that a direct flight?

My typo. PEK is the airline code for Beijing, not PKG. For this non-stop flight at Suvarnabhumi, Thai Airways doesn't give gate announcements in Chinese, only Thai and English, even though 95% of the travelers on the flight appear to be Chinese. Since they can't understand the announcements, they angrily gang press the gate, making it impossible for families traveling with children and the elderly to board first. As a business class flyer, I didn't even try for pre-boarding. The hordes of Chinese--and I've seen this many times--won't let anyone get past them.

The twenty-something female Thai ground staff could care less--they're too busy taking selfies and checking their LINE and FB messages. And once on board the aircraft, the flight attendants in biz class cared even less, so I stopped mentioning it to them. This is how Thai Airways manages the flights from their home hub city, Bangkok, to a major foreign capital, Beijing. That tells you quite a lot about their management.

I feel your pain. Truly. The traveling Chinese aren't a pleasant lot to be lumped in with. Although I do find it a bit of a stretch that you can't pre-board as a Business Class passenger. The Chinese hordes are not averse to being bowled out of the way. In fact, they're quite used to it.

How about trying one of the other, cheaper, Chinese airlines serving that route?