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Etihad Airways celebrates 10 years of service to Thailand
Abu Dhabi-Bangkok route the airline’s busiest for the past four years
Co-pilot and crew of the Etihad Airways flight
departing Bangkok on the day of the Airline’s 10th anniversary, welcome
guests at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab
Emirates, in April celebrated 10 years of service to the Thai capital,
Bangkok.
The Abu Dhabi-based airline commenced services to Thailand in April 2004
with four weekly Airbus A340-500 and, in response to strong market demand,
has increased frequency to three flights daily using a larger Boeing
777-300ER aircraft. This offers a total of 15,960 seats each week between
the two capitals.
 Kirk
Albrow (left), Etihad Airway’s General Manager Thailand, and Chawalit Samadi
(right), Etihad Airway’s Bangkok Duty Manager, during the 10th anniversary
celebration of Etihad Airways operations in Thailand
The Abu Dhabi-Bangkok sector is the busiest on Etihad Airways’ global
network. In 2013, the airline carried 742,759 passengers on the route, seven
percent more than in 2012. It has the distinction of being the airline’s
most travelled for the past four years.
James Hogan, president and chief executive officer of Etihad Airways said,
“Etihad Airways has a strong track record in Thailand. We owe this success
as much to our own organic growth as to the support of the travel industry,
Tourism Authority of Thailand, and our codeshare partners - airberlin and
Bangkok Airways.
“Our partnerships with airberlin and Bangkok Airways, in particular, have
improved traveler access to popular destinations such as Phuket and Koh
Samui, dispersing visitors beyond the capital and generating economic
benefits for local communities.
“We look forward to many more years of fruitful partnerships and commercial
success.”
Etihad Airways recently announced plans to expand its Thai operations with
the launch of daily services Phuket on 26 October 2014. The non-stop flights
between Abu Dhabi and Phuket will use a two-class Airbus A330-200 aircraft,
with 22 Pearl Business seats and 240 Coral Economy seats. These additional
services have been scheduled to provide optimal connectivity between Phuket
and key markets across Europe and the GCC.
To cater for the needs of Thai travelers, Etihad Airways offers a range of
special guest services which include Thai-speaking cabin crew, special
inflight menus and a Thai-language website.
Etihad Airways is celebrating this milestone with a 10th anniversary sale
offering great value airfares to the airline’s Top 10 destinations. For more
information, visit a travel agent or the airline’s website www.etihad.com/th
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After the shutdown - the comeback
Leading Tourism forum unites hospitality heavyweights in quest to get Bangkok back on its feet
‘Brand Thailand’ is on the ropes, reeling and trying to shake
off the near-knockout blow dealt by the Bangkok shutdown, with
hotel occupancies down more than a third for Q1, 2014, a key
tourism forum heard on April 22.
 Jesper
Palmqvist, area director-Asia Pacific of STR Global.
Over 400 leading figures in the travel and tourism industry
packed the InterContinental Bangkok Grand Ballroom for the third
Thailand Tourism Forum, with industry heavyweights mostly
optimistic that Thailand would show its renowned resilience in
shaking off the post-shutdown hangover.
Thailand’s comeback would be fuelled by exponentially-rising
demand from China, as well as India, Brazil, Russia and Turkey,
set against a big picture of strong regional growth and a global
travel industry increasingly dominated by Asia.
The forum was organized by the American Chamber of Thailand and
C9 Hotelworks together with leading hospitality and real estate
industry firms Jones Lang LaSalle (JJL), Horwath HTL, STR Global
and the IHG Hotel Group, and featured speakers from hospitality
heavyweights from the operational, branding, marketing and
digital sectors. Among these were senior figures from Minor
International, ONYX Hospitality Group, Accor Asia Pacific, QUO
Global, Sukosol Hotels, Montara Hospitality, Digital Innovation
Asia and Baker & McKenzie.
The forum itself was a victim of the city-strangling shutdown,
reconvening after being postponed from early January. Its theme
echoed the question on the lips of all participants: “What’s
Next for Thailand’s Tourism Industry?”
The impact of the shutdown on Bangkok had been swift and
dramatic, according to keynote speaker Jesper Palmqvist, area
director Asia Pacific of STR Global, the world’s leading
hospitality benchmark monitor, with occupancies plummeting over
30 percent in the Thai capital in the first quarter of 2014
compared to the same period last year.
International tourist arrivals to Thailand declined by 4.1
percent in February (year-on-year) and 9.39 percent in March,
the latest figures show. This contrasted with a positive
regional trend, which saw Thailand’s neighbors all experience
gains of around two to five percent in occupancy for the first
two months of 2014 - with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and
Vietnam all beneficiaries of Thailand’s latest crisis.
History suggested Bangkok’s bounce back from the brink would be
equally impressive, Palmqvist said, presenting the latest STR
Global data on the local and regional hospitality industry.
Bangkok hotel occupancies in January declined 26% in
year-on-year performance. This worsened to 37 percent in
February as the protests escalated, choking key city
intersections and prompting many embassies to issue travel
warnings.
This had not flowed on to a commensurate drop in room rates,
Palmqvist revealed, with a drop in rates of less than two
percent across Thailand. Nor had it affected Thailand’s other
resort destinations and gateway cities, with a drop of just two
percent for the first two months of the year, offset by a 2.7
percent increase in average daily rates.
“Thailand’s resilience is legendary,” Palmqvist said. “The big
question is how many times it can be relied upon after the
latest self-inflicted crisis before Thailand finally loses its
bounce.”
JJL senior vice president, investment sales Asia, Nihat Ercan,
offered an even bleaker view of the shaky start to 2014 in
Thailand, and particularly in Bangkok, putting the drop in
occupancies in the capital as high as 35 percent.
“Resort markets like Phuket and Samui remained largely
unaffected by the political upheavals, in direct contrast to
Bangkok,” he told the forum.
Dusit International CEO David Shackleton revealed at a pre-forum
press briefing that the group’s flagship Dusit Thani hotel had
seen occupancies drop, but “never into single figures”, during
the shutdown, but that had now bounced back to the mid-40
percent range for April and barring more protests, the rate
would continue to climb sharply.
Across-the-board belt-tightening, temporary restaurant closures
and reassignment of expatriate staff were amongst the tactics
the group had been forced to adopt to ride out the crisis.
He also called for the industry to reach out in a united front
to key embassies and diplomats to ensure travel warnings were
commensurate with the level of risk to travelers. “In the latest
crisis, we had Hong Kong issuing a black warning for Thailand,
instantly voiding travel insurance and no doubt resulting in
mass cancellations and changes in plan, putting us in the same
company as Syria.”
Forum co-convener Bill Barnett, of hospitality consulting firm
C9 Hotelworks, said Thailand’s regional hospitality hotspots had
benefitted from a sustained build-up of direct airlift over the
past five years.
“Travelers have the option to bypass Bangkok and their
confidence in Brand Thailand remains generally positive,” said
Barnett. “We saw a similar trend demonstrated during the
previous crisis in 2011, with primarily resort markets retaining
strong international trading.”
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Bangkok Airways partners
Chiang Mai Golf Festival 2014
Bangkok Airways will offer golfers who travel between Bangkok &
Chiang Mai to participate in the “Chiang Mai Golf Festival 2014”
an extra 10kg baggage allowance on top of the regular limit of
20kg at check-in. This offer will be available from May 1 to
June 30, 2014.
Currently, Bangkok Airways operate 7 daily flights between
Bangkok & Chiang Mai. For more information and reservation,
please contact Bangkok Airways’ Call Center - 1771 or
02-270-6699 or visit www.bangkokair.com.
THAI suffers profit unexpected losses of Bt30mln in March
Thai Airways International (THAI) in March faced profit losses
of another Bt30 million from the original forecast with its
passenger load lowered year-on-year by 20.5 percent.
Chokchai Panyayong, THAI acting president, said the airline’s
board had concluded that flight operations last month were
reduced in accordance with lower passenger demand as a result of
the ongoing political protest and the impact from high
competition of other airlines.
Around 1.59 million passengers used the airline in March, a 20.5
percent decrease year-on-year, resulting in the system’s
passenger cabin factor at 68.7 percent, lower than the same
period last year which was 80.3 percent.
However, Chokchai said the airline will have positive business
profits throughout the year, for he believed once the political
situation eases, Thailand’s tourism will quickly recover.
Meanwhile, THAI plans to attract more transit passengers with a
target of 30 percent of overall passengers from the current
26-27 percent. (MCOT)
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