Domestic air fares may rise by 80%

[Zidane]

According to an article in Khaosod domestic airfares in Thailand could rise by up to 80% when flights resume due to the number of empty seats as part of social distancing.
Passengers will be required to wear face masks throughout the flight and at the airports.
Airline staff will wear masks,faceguards and gloves throughout the flight.
No food or water will be served on the flights.
Passengers requiring water for medication will be taken to a specific area by staff.
Domestic flights of more than 90 minutes will have to leave seats at the back of the plane empty in case a passenger shows signs of illness and will be taken there.

As an example of the fare increase a domestic return fare Udon Thani to Bangkok now costing 2,500 baht could rise to as much as 4,500 baht.

[vincemunday]

Going to be difficult to make a profit with half empty planes.

[sometimewoodworker]

According to an article in Khaosod domestic airfares in Thailand could rise by up to 80% when flights resume due to the number of empty seats as part of social distancing.
Passengers will be required to wear face masks throughout the flight and at the airports.
Airline staff will wear masks,faceguards and gloves throughout the flight.
No food or water will be served on the flights.
Passengers requiring water for medication will be taken to a specific area by staff.
Domestic flights of more than 90 minutes will have to leave seats at the back of the plane empty in case a passenger shows signs of illness and will be taken there.

As an example of the fare increase a domestic return fare Udon Thani to Bangkok now costing 2,500 baht could rise to as much as 4,500 baht.

That sort of increase will probably happen in the longer term, in the short term the airline’s desperately need people to both want to and be comfortable in the safety of flying. Bringing in that sort of rise immediately will deter many people from starting to fly again.

It will be interesting to see what will happen.

[deankham]

I've always considered flights from Bangkok to Udon to be very reasonable when you manage to get the 'normal' price. However I've paid almost 5,000 baht one way before during holiday periods to secure the last few seats. Assuming they apply the same variable fares based on how busy the flight is you could be paying a lot for that connecting flight to BKK!

I wonder what the impact to international flights will be. An 80% increase on your long haul is going to be real painful!!

[vincemunday]

They’ll have to put them up straight away, they can’t fly planes at a loss

[sometimewoodworker]

Going to be difficult to make a profit with half empty planes.

More difficult with no body wanting to take the risk.

Getting the planes back flying even if not making much or any profit is better then loosing the money having them parked

[vincemunday]

Disagree completely, these airlines are struggling anyway, the only saviour might be the cheaper aviation fuel, apart from which there are plenty of hiso Thai who will pay the fares.

[sometimewoodworker]

I've always considered flights from Bangkok to Udon to be very reasonable when you manage to get the 'normal' price. However I've paid almost 5,000 baht one way before during holiday periods to secure the last few seats. Assuming they apply the same variable fares based on how busy the flight is you could be paying a lot for that connecting flight to BKK!

I wonder what the impact to international flights will be. An 80% increase on your long haul is going to be real painful!!

Short term little to no increase, to get people flying. Though the cheapest tickets may not be there
Don’t forget the oil price drop.

[stattointhailand]

Sky interview with Michael O'Leary (Ryanair)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtccxnEmfeM

[vincemunday]

There will be hundreds of people waiting to fly, there are so many rich Thai, they won’t care.

[sometimewoodworker]

They’ll have to put them up straight away, they can’t fly planes at a loss

They can as it’s very expensive to leave the planes parked, so as long as it costs less to fly than to park they will fly.

A plane is not like a car where parking it for a couple of months is virtually free, specially if they don’t have a low humidity area to keep them.

[fredwilliams]

Passengers will be required to wear face masks throughout the flight and at the airports.
Airline staff will wear masks,faceguards and gloves throughout the flight.
No food or water will be served on the flights.
Passengers requiring water for medication will be taken to a specific area by staff.

In-flight entertainment reinvented.

Sounds like it'll be a right laugh.

[vincemunday]

Okay SWW, we’ll see, don’t base people’s abilty to pay for the more expensive flight based on what you think is normal, do you realise how many Thai will be waiting to fly? Forget the farang business it’s not worth a carrot by comparison.

[vincemunday]

Stats I don’t see what the Ryan Air interview has to do with this thread?

[stattointhailand]

Inside view on what an airline ceo sees as the current position in his industry including the fact that "all airlines will have to heavily discount their seats"

[vincemunday]

Totally different market and I would say totally irrelevant to Thailand but we will see.

[stattointhailand]

and also that having the middle seat empty is totally useless as you still only have 2ft 6ins between the passengers (not 6ft) and that you would need every other row empty as the person in front and behind are even nearer

[vincemunday]

It’s not going to make a lot of difference to the Thai market, you know that, the hiso that will be flying Thai Smile have probably never heard of Ryan Air and what’s more it’s very unlikely they’ll give a toss what it’s CEO thinks.

[747man]

According to an article in Khaosod domestic airfares in Thailand could rise by up to 80% when flights resume due to the number of empty seats as part of social distancing.
Passengers will be required to wear face masks throughout the flight and at the airports.
Airline staff will wear masks,faceguards and gloves throughout the flight.
No food or water will be served on the flights.
Passengers requiring water for medication will be taken to a specific area by staff.
Domestic flights of more than 90 minutes will have to leave seats at the back of the plane empty in case a passenger shows signs of illness and will be taken there.

As an example of the fare increase a domestic return fare Udon Thani to Bangkok now costing 2,500 baht could rise to as much as 4,500 baht.

Really...............73.00 GBP RETURN From The 2nd May.......Up Until 25th May On NOK Air, Then from the 26th It Actually Goes DOWN to 60 Quid Return on Air Asia / Nok Air Combined........

[747man]

They’ll have to put them up straight away, they can’t fly planes at a loss

No Vince......Check www.skyscanner.com