THAILAND: Thai Airways International Halts Flights

Thai Airways International will ground all services in Asia, 25 March, followed by Australia on 27 March and Europe
on 1 April, the airline announced Tuesday evening.

According to the airline’s announcement flights will remain grounded
until 31 May.

Blaming travel bans and country lockdowns that battle the Covid-19 outbreaks across Europe and Asia the airline is embarking on an unprecedented shutdown of flights that will last through to 31 May.

Starting on 25 March 2020 services are suspended to 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 on 27 March 2020 services are suspended to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth in Australia.

Starting on 1 April 2020 THAI will cancel most of its flights to Europe serving London, Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo, Moscow
and Stockholm.

The airline had earlier suspended flights to Sendai, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Busan, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Rome, Milan, Vienna, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Muscat, Dubai, and Auckland.

Passengers who hold THAI and THAI Smile code-share tickets, issued before 25 March 2020 with the following travel periods, can convert unused tickets to one-year valid travel voucher without fees or surcharges:
Asian Routes 25 March to 31 May 2020; European, Australian and New Zealand Routes 1 April to 31 May 2020.

Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) members holding award tickets issued for travel during 25 March to 31 May 2020 are eligible for a full re-credit mileages, or they can opt to change the travel date without any fee or charge with expired miles extended until 30 September 2020.

Passengers can check flight schedules and make itinerary changes 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 still operate cargo service on some routes and will operate charter flights if there are stranded passengers or government agencies that make a request.