Thai Airways resumes daily Dhaka-Bangkok flights soon

A Z M Anas

Thai Airways will resume daily passenger flights between Dhaka and the Thai capital of Bangkok from early next month, officials said Friday, the sign of rebound in air travel on the busy route.

Thailand's national carrier cut back its flight frequency on the Dhaka-Bangkok route to five from seven a week in late November last year, amid weakening load factor-how full its aircraft is. The volume of Thailand-bound travellers saw a steep fall after the Thai national crisis, the worst in a decade, gripped the South East Asian nation.

"We'll be flying again passengers on a daily basis from February 1. It's a sign of recovery," Kitipong, general manger at its Dhaka office, said.

"Although we suspended the Chittagong-Bangkok route, this route's past capacity will be restored. The authorities decided to increase frequency as air travel gained pace," he added.

The announcement comes at a time when the new alliance government has just taken power, ending the prolonged rule by the military-backed caretaker government. Bangladesh has also been under a state of emergency since January 2007 and it was lifted barely two weeks before the December 29 general elections.

A Thai Airways official said the anti-graft crackdown in Bangladesh on political leaders and businessmen and the political unrest in Thailand put a damper on the airline's business, prompting it to cut capacity.

The official, who is not authorised to speak to the media, added that the airline's load factor was close to 70 per cent before the wobbly situation in both countries. He, however, declined to disclose the rate of fall in flight occupancy.

People involved in travel trade say, Thai Airways and its rivals which operate on the route survive mainly on deep-pocketed businessmen and medical tourists.

But the number of businessmen travelling on the route receded sharply during the last two years when the military-backed caretaker government launched anti-graft crackdown on moneyed people, precipitating a downturn in outbound air travel, they added.

Official statistics also mirrors that reality.

The country's labour traffic ballooned to 40 per cent between 2006 and 2007 before coming down to half in 2008. By contrast, the percentage of business and leisure traffic fell by 20 per cent in the same period.

According to industry insiders, competition from Druk Air, Air India Express, GMG and Best Air, which offer cheaper fares, can also be a major factor for the carrier's recent move to reduce capacity on Dhaka-Bangkok route.

The fall-off in passengers coupled with lower fares forced the Bangkok-based carrier to suspend its Bangkok services to the port city of Chittagong .

"The route has remained in the red since its inception in 2002. The responses from passengers have never been good. And there is no possibility of improvement," the airline official said.

The Thai airline started its Bangkok services to the port city of Chittagong in 2002, operating three weekly flights.

He also blamed the global economic meltdown and its fallout on the Bangladesh economy for the downturn in air travel by Bangladeshis.

Thai Airways, which has been serving this market since 1965, is one of the oldest foreign carriers out of 20 operating in the country. In 2007, it carried 146, 734 passengers who travelled in and out of Bangladesh .

Foreign airlines have garnered roughly 80 per cent of the country's growing aviation market, beating out its local rivals including the national flag carrier, Biman.