Thai Air Asia cuts flights to Myanmar

Oct 2, 2007, 2:56 GMT

Bangkok - Thai AirAsia has cut its flights between Bangkok and Yangon from seven to three a week, due to a 50 per cent drop in bookings as a result of unrest in Myanmar and a drop in confidence in no-frills airlines, news reports said Tuesday.

Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld said the political upheaval in Myanmar had exacerbated the airline's existing problems with declining bookings because of the crash of another Thai no-frills airline One-Two-Go in Phuket, Thailand, on September 16 in which 90 people died.

The accident has led to a 5 to 10 per cent drop in bookings for all budget airlines in Thailand, including Thai AirAsia, Tassapon told The Nation newspaper.

The airline started to cut its Bangkok-Yangon flights on Monday and will have dropped them to three a week by the end of this month.

Thai Airways International (THAI), the national carrier, has yet to cut its thrice-daily flights from Bangkok to Yangon, but it has rescheduled its late flights TG 305 and TG 306 to allow passengers to get into the city before the 9:00 p.m. local time curfew goes into effect.

Yangon was the scene of daily monk-led protests between September 19 to 28 that ended in a brutal crackdown by the ruling military regime that left at least 10 people dead, although other sources estimate the death toll as much higher.