Thai Airways to resume domestic flights by YE20

Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) will restart domestic flights on two trunk routes, from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to each of Chiang Mai and Phuket, on December 25, 2020, following a nine-month suspension of all scheduled flights caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bangkok Post has reported. The Thai flag carrier plans to operate each of the routes 3x weekly using B777-200(ER) widebody aircraft. The initial schedule will be in place through the end of February 2021. Thai Airways suspended all scheduled flights by April 1, 2020. It has since operated a limited number of repatriation charters and cargo-only services. According to the ch-aviation capacities module, it currently operates 23 weekly departures from Bangkok, mostly to airports in East Asia, but none of these flights is available to passengers in open sales. Thai Airways, which has a widebody-only fleet, operated only a limited number of domestic flights, mainly from the capital to Chiang Mai and Phuket, prior to the pandemic. Most domestic routes, as well as thinner international short-haul services, were outsourced to subsidiary Thai Smile (WE, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi), which has a fleet of twenty A320-200s and restarted operations on June 1, 2020. The airline said that it will restart a minimal number of international scheduled passenger flights on January 1, 2021. Initially, the airline will operate to Hong Kong Int’l (daily), Tokyo Narita (3x weekly), Frankfurt Int’l, London Heathrow, Osaka Kansai, Manila Ninoy Aquino Int’l, Sydney Kingsford Smith, Seoul Incheon, and Copenhagen Kastrup (weekly each). Thai Airways is currently in bankruptcy protection with a new business plan due to be presented to the court in late 2020 or early 2021.