Airlines cutting ticket prices

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Gaybutton
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Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by Gaybutton »

Airlines scramble to slash ticket prices

by Narumon Kasemsuk and Dusida Worrachaddejchai

February 25, 2020

The unease caused by Covid-19 is expected to drag down Thai tourism for more than six months, triggering airlines to slash ticket prices to steer the market, while Nok Air and Nokscoot cut pilots and cabin crew to save cost.

Thai Airways International (THAI) is partnering with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to offer discounts such as free domestic tickets to international tourists. Low-cost carriers plan to focus on local tourists opting for domestic travel as there is a limited number of outbound choices free from the virus.

Thai AirAsia is providing 100-baht discounts for any domestic routes within a designated period, while Nok Air is offering one-way ticket prices for domestic routes starting from 680 baht this month. Vietjet Air has marked down all routes across Thailand by 50%.

As the outbreak spreads to more countries, Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT) believes the impact will last longer than six months, and the losses will be larger than the TAT's projection of 250 billion baht, said Chairat Trirattanajarasporn, president of TCT.

"Operators are ready to comply with stimulus plans from the authorities to secure at least 36 million international tourists this year. But the government has to think and act faster than this, or most businesses will collapse because of the impact," said Mr Chairat.

The THAI-TAT collaboration -- Amazing Flight, Amazing Thailand -- will be launched in March at ITB Berlin 2020, one of the biggest trade shows in Europe, for travel during May to October, said Tanes Petsuwan, deputy governor of marketing communications at TAT.

Under the six-month campaign, THAI will offer 10,000 tickets to Thailand to international tourists with at least a 20% discount, plus a round-trip ticket for a domestic route operated by THAI or THAI Smile Airways.

"We'll start with 10,000 tickets. If the feedback is good TAT will talk with THAI about increasing the number of sale tickets," said Mr Tanes.

This project has a budget of around 30 million baht, shared equally by the two parties. It expects to stimulate tourist spending of around 500 million baht.

NokScoot airline issued a statement that 11 pilots and 36 cabin crew were told to leave the company, while Nok Air axed four pilots. The airlines want to save on operation cost amid a severe economic situation and the virus outbreak. Nok Air has tried many attempts to control costs.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/18 ... ket-prices
Jun

Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by Jun »

I wouldn't think a 100 baht discount on an airfare would change many purchasing decisions.

I typically expect low cost short haul flights to be below 3000 baht, preferably 2000 baht. A 5% discount would not change my plans.

Incidentally, I note bar boys from Thailand, Cambodia and Laos are admitting to flying more frequently these days and they seem less concerned about price than me. One day they might discover phones are good for sites like Skyscanner, in addition to Facebook and Tik Tok.

I can't imagine that a 5% discount would have them rushing to book more flights either.
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Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

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Jun wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 10:58 am I wouldn't think a 100 baht discount on an airfare would change many purchasing decisions.
I agree. I don't know what the airlines are thinking. If you're going to offer a discount, offer a discount. I doubt you're going to get much of a result by taking the public for fools.
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Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by pong »

But airls are also cancelling many flites (consolidating they call that in the airline bisnis)-say they did 4/day and now 3 or only 2).
Tipically about any domestic flite in Th can be had for less as 1000 on the budget airlines, thus not THai (which hardly flies domestic now-its ThaiSmile) and BKK-air with its very own fleet, service and airports. TG always had the highest prices anyway, but is complete full-service. To compare: the fixed price for a luxury VIP overnight bus or a sleeper/2nd cl in the trains cost around 6~800, in potential also saving a nite on HTL.
If booked smartly and not too short ahead (say over 2 weeks from today) most INTern. flites to nearby, VN, KUL/MY, Camb/PnpN etc. can be had for 1000~1500, for a flite of 1-1,5 hr, including the 700 bt airport tax for that. Pay more for luggage and food on board.
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Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by whitedesire »

Once again international travellers won't go if they are not insured. In the UK, the FCO say only essential travel.

The key behind this is an antibody test.
Jun

Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by Jun »

whitedesire wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 3:06 am Once again international travellers won't go if they are not insured. In the UK, the FCO say only essential travel.
The key behind this is an antibody test.
Nice to see this thread reverting to the use of the English language after the previous post.

An antibody test is one of the solutions & probably the first one. A vaccine would be another.

Finally, if the market doesn't offer travel insurance with covid cover, then another way would be for the Thai government to cover the cost of covid treatment in tourists. Possibly funded by a tax on air travel.
My travel insurance company informed me covid is now a "known event" back in early March, so I am not covered for any NEW trips booked after that date (I have a 12 month multi-trip policy). The FCO advice would probably also invalidate insurance.

So at present, if there are restrictions on entering Thailand & no valid insurance, flight prices become irrelevant.
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Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 2:49 pm So at present, if there are restrictions on entering Thailand & no valid insurance, flight prices become irrelevant.
There are definitely restrictions. To the best of my knowledge no incoming international flights are being allowed to come to Thailand yet. The ban is extended to the end of May. Don't be surprised if they extend the ban even further.

Even if they were allowing such flights, where would the passengers stay? All the hotels are still closed.

There are still so many restrictions with domestic flights that I doubt most people would want to fly anywhere within Thailand unless absolutely necessary. Even upon arrival, the local restrictions are still in place. How many people are going to want to fly somewhere within Thailand only to find themselves quarantined 14 days?

You're bringing up a good point about insurance. I have no idea how Thailand is planning to handle that if insurance covering the virus is not available. Thailand wants to save the tourist industry, but that's a little difficult to do if international tourists can't even get into Thailand. Even Thais who have managed to get onboard repatriation flights are being quarantined upon arrival.

Just a guess on my part, but I think Thailand will have to come up with some sort of method to provide insurance for incoming passengers. I don't believe they're going to start just letting people arrive without insurance. I can't imagine after all this they're going to let international travelers endanger Thailand. I have no idea what they're going to do, but the way I see it, it's either come up with something or it will be a very long time before the tourist industry can even begin to recover.

Meanwhile, most people who worked in the tourist industry, either directly or indirectly, are still out of work. I don't know how these people are managing to survive.

Even under the best of circumstances it will still be a very long time before the tourist industry gets back to normal - or at least becomes profitable under the "new normal", whatever that will be.
odd

Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by odd »

All hotels are not closed-I know of two which are open but it would not be prudent of me to mention names here. Domestic travelers do need somewhere to sleep.
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Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by Gaybutton »

odd wrote: Fri May 08, 2020 10:01 am it would not be prudent of me to mention names here.
Why not? Why keep it a secret? If you thought it would be violating a board rule, that would be a mistake. I would not have a problem about that.

Unless the hotels are open illegally, I don't understand why letting us know which hotels are open would be some sort of a problem.
odd

Re: Airlines cutting ticket prices

Post by odd »

I have written on another topic that you should look at Booking.com et al
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