In light of Bangkok’s new Covid-19 lockdown measures, Thai AirAsia has cancelled all their domestic flights in Thailand, while Bangkok Airways, Nok Air, Thai Smile, and Vietjet have introduced emergency measures for flight rescheduling.
AirAsia, the popular budget airline based in Malaysia, has suspended all domestic flights operated by Thai AirAsia effective immediately. They hope to resume service on August 1, 2021 if Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. The airline posted a notice yesterday late afternoon that all Thai AirAsia flights from today onward through July 31 have now been cancelled.
The announcement came so suddenly and many stranded passengers pushed back. It is being reported now that Thai AirAsia just decided to continue flight service today and tomorrow before suspending all flights from Monday. They cited the Thai government’s Covid-19 prevention measures, saying the airline is suspending domestic service in order to adhere to the lockdown restrictions in place.
Thai AirAsia vows to contact all passengers affected by the cancelled flights through email or SMS to make arrangements in accordance with their flight ticket terms and conditions, in what they called “flight recovery options.” The notice apologised for the inconvenience without advanced notice and thanked customers for their understanding.
Meanwhile, 4 more of the major domestic carriers operating hopper flights throughout Thailand have put emergency measures in place to help affected travellers reschedule flights as necessary due to lockdown restrictions in Bangkok, its 5 surrounding provinces, and the 4 southern provinces impacted most by Covid-19. Dark red zones are being asked to avoid all unnecessary travel and travel between provinces is being restricted.
Nok Air posted the following rules and Bangkok Airways, Thai Smile, and Vietjet offered similar accommodation. They are offering one free date change on flights with customers responsible for any difference in fare. Travel must be the original route and before the end of 2021 and the change must be made outside of 12 hours before the original departure date. Alternately, the value of the ticket can be held as a flight credit for use until March 31, 2022.
The rules were announced following guidance from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand after tons of complaints during last year’s lockdowns from passengers who lost their entire flight value due to rules that didn’t consider Covid-19 restrictions rendering vouchers unusable.