Thai Airways Bows Out of Los Angeles

If the latest airline timetables are to be believed, Thai Airways will soon have no more direct link to the United States.  

Image source: Wikimedia

After October 25 2015, Thai Airways will end its service between Bangkok and Los Angeles via Seoul.  Previously, Thailand's flag carrier operated a non-stop flight between those two cities until 2012.  It also had a non-stop flight between Bangkok and New York's JFK airport until 2008.  Thai Airways is also going to end its flights to Rome Fiumicino on that day.  

Thai Airways is not the only Southeast Asian carrier to lose direct flights to the US.  In 2014, Malaysian Airlines also ended its flights between Kuala Lumpur to Los Angeles via Tokyo in an effort to cut losses.  This was planned even before the twin disasters of MH370 and MH17, both of which involved the Malaysian flag carrier's Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.  

OPTIONS REMAINING FOR TRAVELLING TO THE UNITED STATES
This leaves only Philippine Airlines and Singapore Airlines as the two Southeast Asian carriers having direct flights to the United States.  

In fact, even as Malaysian Airlines and Thai Airways end their service to the US, Philippine Airlines has made good on its promise to open new routes.  Just last March, the Philippine flag carrier reintroduced flights to New York City via Vancouver.  Although it is too early to say how the route is fairing, the flag carrier indicated that it is not yet done with US expansion as it is also considering opening flights to Chicago and cities in Florida.  

Passengers from Bangkok can use Philippine Airlines to connect to various destinations in the United States via Manila and vice versa.  PR731 leaves Bangkok at 1.30 pm and arrives in Manila at 6.00 pm.  Flights to the United States begin as early as 7.45 pm.  Likewise, passengers arriving from the United States on Philippine Airlines flights who wish to visit Bangkok can take PR730 which departs at 9.35 am.  

Philippine Airlines does not operate flights to Kuala Lumpur but maintains a codeshare agreement with all Malaysia Airlines flights between Manila and Kuala Lumpur.  However, passengers will need to transfer between Terminals 1 and 2, and wait for up to 8 hours starting in August 15 as service reductions between the two cities are also planned.

Singapore Airlines also maintains flights to Los Angeles (via Tokyo), San Francisco (via Hong Kong and Seoul), New York JFK (via Frankfurt), and Houston (via Moscow).

Outside Southeast Asia, Bangkok has an abundance of flights to Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo where Thai Airways' Star Alliance partners and other carriers can take care of transporting passengers to the United States.

25 comments:

  1. This will be positive to PAL as this would make them one of the options going to these cities and connectivity times are good since all flights from the west coast are non-stop to MNL.

    Given this, PAL should up their service and ante to capture these markets and add these on their customer base. The lease of 2 B77W would come in handy.

    -weel

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not only that, the Phil. govt should see this as an opportunity to make the country as an international hub. Which means that officials should hit themselves in the head and decide on creating a new airport.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A good opportunity for PAL, but to attract this passengers we have also to further improve our infrastructure which will come with the intervention of our govt. Because if i were to chose I would prefer Singapore or Korea as a transit hub in going to the States.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Not only that, the Phil. govt should see this as an opportunity to make the country as an international hub..." Isn't that the truth. Filipinos seem shocked when I tell them that MNL should be a hub o par with SIN. This is actually the perfect location for a global hub between Asia, North America and the South Pacific. If the government won't back it up - it will never happen.

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  5. This is good news, but I prefer Asiana Airlines over Philippine Airlines.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is it really a good news to you? But yet you prefer OZ rather than PR..lol

      Delete
    2. What he meant was good news as it can bring business opportunity for PR. Not nescessarilly for him since he stated it, obviously, he preferred OZ. And definitely not good news for TG as they're the one closing the route. Nevertheless, its still good news in any other sense.

      Delete
  6. A new airport needs to be started now. Best option is to reclaim land from Manila bay and build a airport with two runways and ability to add on more runways when needed. Then when the new airport is done close the current airport. The land the current airport on is very valuable. Can easily finance the new airport from the sale of land where the current airport is.

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  7. I know people from PR and New York is doing better than expected. The JFK-MNL pax is high, add pa the transit pax lang of YVR-JFK.

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  8. Expedite the delivery of the 2 remaining 777s for PAL >:D Just kidding!

    I hope PAL handles this opportunity well. It'll be a big boost for them if all is well. The airport though...it's congested!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Starting Aug. PAL will be sending B777 to bangkok thru PR 730/731

      Delete
  9. yeah, 2 carrier options for south east asia, but passengers travelling between asia and u.s. have still multiple hubs option. other than singapore, other country hubs like japan, korea, taiwan and china are still available. japan airlines and all nippon are big competitors. korea air and asiana are strong too. taiwan's china airlines and eva air are competing as well. then the american airlines serving all these cointries like delta, american airlines, united, etc. then lastly that i can think of is the china's poc airlines, which are too many like air china, southern china, etc, which sell the cheapest airfare. but i will never fly to asia with connecting fligbt to china anymore, im not sure if the procedure applies only for american. when i flew between los angeles and manila via beijing, although it is only layover to beijing, all passengers of american airlines via beijing had to disimbark then take all this security procedures like pictures, finger printing, etc. then after that passengers have to checkin again with all their luggages and carry on. just toet u know. for me it should be ok, but its a hassle and waste of time whith the fact that it is only connecting flight. but i agree retiring of direct thai airw flights to us would also help pal's market.

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  10. New trend please...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thailand is emerging as the next Asian economic tiger, therefore, it can afford to let its state airline discontinue unprofitable routes like USA because there is no "brain drain" from Thailand; 99% is happy staying in their country!T itg

      Delete
    2. It was. But time changes. Political stability is the problem now. Maybe citizens dont want to rule by a king forever. Time for change.

      Delete
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