Sam Drucker

< No, this is not an April fool's gag . . . at least not from me. I wish it were a gag from THAI, but it appears not. >

I hesitated at booking a Khon Kaen > BKK trip on the 31st (priced at 2,455 baht one way) and found the next day that the cheapest fare on that route was now 3,150 baht.

THAI has now come out with a statement on their website:

THAI Clarifies Increase in Domestic Airfare

In the case of Khon Kaen, I guess we got off lucky, because our increase was only about 28%.

Interestingly, this statement doesn't seem to say anything about necessity due to losses. The justification seems to be that they should do it because they haven't raised them in three years.

We just had an article in the Bangkok Post recently about THAI keeping the Khon Kaen route:

The Bangkok Post (March 23rd, 2010):

THAI to keep Bangkok-Khon Kaen route

They state in the article that they are keeping the route because it is profitable. That was before the fare increase. Good reason to increase it a further 28%.

joy16

It seems that they put their position above LCC and use Nok Air for fighting brand in low cost market.

Fare for domestic routes after 1 April is included taxes, except airport tax.

flysas

seems that bangkok airways is now a better option for domestic routes

compared thai and bangkok on the route bkk-cnx and its basically 3500 with bangkok and 7000 with thai return in economy..

Sam Drucker

I might add that in Khon Kaen, we also saw the recently started KKC-CNX on Nok jump from 2,590 baht, up to 3,390 baht. (one-way, on a Saab 340).

I'm not sure if Nok raised other fares also?


Both NOK and THAI have rolled the fuel surcharge into their fares now (at least domestically.) That had something to do with a Thai Department of Civil Aviation ruling.

jimmieg

Noticed that fare from BKK-PNH went up yesterday from $287 to $457 for June travel.

dsquared37

That's huge

Curious what PNH-BKK-PNH is as that direction tends to be cheaper.

Edit: answered my own question. TG is showing $170 for a PNH-BKK r/t on a random weekend in June. It's probably lower if purchase through TG's call center.

Jages

I just got hit with the BKK-PNH rise as I put off booking my ticket for next week until yesterday (was not confirmed to travel for work until yesterday) and was amazed at the price difference from a week before

pansted00

I hope there is something wrong with the TG website booking engine, as when I try to make dummy bookings for BKK-CDG-BKK or BKK-FRA-BKK in C or F , in May June or later, all I get are the flexible rates at crazy prices of 157,000 and 272,000 THB respectively ...
Usually you get rates of 125,000 in C and 175,000 in F...

Sam Drucker

THAI has now posted a statement about the domestic fare increase on their website. You can follow this link:

THAI Clarifies Increase in Domestic Airfare

There's been no mention of regional fares (such as PNH) being included in this action. And curiously, there's been no stories in the English-language news media about this either.

THAI says nothing in their statement about profitibility (or lack of). They essentially say that it's been three years since they last raised fares, so it was time to do it, and +36% is within government limitations.

brunos

Fare increases are always painful, especially to frequent users. Apparently many airlines in Asia increased fares on April 1.
The increase in domestic fare is huge in percentage terms, but not that huge in absolute terms (dollars or bahts), as the old fares were very low compared to other countries. I have been critical of TG, but I must admit that their unrestricted (or slightly restricted) domestic fares with "full" service seemed so low that they could hardly make financial sense from the airline viewpoint.

bertheike

wow,
also the J special went up.
HKT-BKK was 4.880 THB incl. everything, and now it is 6.775 THB !
That's 39 %
And counted in European curencys GBP, or Euro it's even 15 % more since 3 month ago. Because THB rised against all European curencys.
But travelling the last month I saw nearly every aircraft was full until the last seat. @ least between HKT and BKK
Keep waiting what Air Asia will do. Until now I always chosed TG if I got a W special for 2.200 THB over a Air Asia fare 1500 THB. But paying 4200 for the cheapest eco is a litle bit much premium, just for using their lounge.

Aussie_flyer

VERY poor of Thai Airways. Especially since the country is currently experiencing more political problems resulting in lower tourism numbers. It's typical of Thai business though, increase prices when business is suffering.

I don't see myself paying these prices domestically now, will probably stick to Thai AirAsia. It's a shame!

djjaguar64

This must be a joke, the BKK-HKT was 3000 each way and now it is 8000 r/t.

Wow, they must be kidding for a 1hr 20 minutes flight.

Air Asia is still reasonable.

Thai-Kiwi

In a perverse way, this make domestic award bookings more attractive!

Cheers, TK

Keter

I rarely use TG, but given the level of domestic prices to me as a leisure traveller, it is only beneficial to buy those as part of an international itinerary.

I think it is only now that TG has finally figured out what the sustainable level of business travellers' demand is (with low elasticity) and let it go. I doubt NOK will follow. Unless all carriers follow, of course.