Thai Airways has announced that their suspension of international flights, which began in March, will extend until at least September 1st.
The troubled airline initially grounded their fleet when Thailand announced a ban on international flights, which has since been eased, earlier this year.
Since then, Thai Airways International Plc has filed for bankruptcy reconstruction, undergone several board reshuffles, lost its state enterprise status, and informed customers that they would not receive refunds for paid tickets for at least six months.
Now, adding to the avalanche of bad news, the airline has canceled all international flights throughout August despite selling tickets for flights during that time as recently as last week on their website.
Below is the statement released on the Thai Airways website:
“Due to the ongoing covid-19 outbreak, and the continuous immigration restrictions and governmental measures imposed by several countries, THAI has been forced to extend the temporary suspension of its international operations until the end of August 2020.
We appreciate the continuous disruption and inconvenience this may cause to passengers and truly apologize for this.
We understand that passengers may have questions about changes to bookings. We are trying our best to respond to all queries, but all our teams are extremely busy at present which has greatly affected our response time.
If your flight has been canceled, we are currently in the process of advising you or your travel agent (if you booked through a third party) accordingly. Please ensure you check the status of your flight(s) through the “My Booking” section of our website.”
The statement goes to inform customers who have purchased a ticket that they can avail of options, including a travel voucher, ticket extension, rebooking, or rerouting. There is also an option to cancel a wholly unused ticket with refunds “estimated to take up to 6 months to process.”
As of today, July 13th, passengers can still book international flights on the Thai Airways website from September 1st, 2020.
However, with the airline’s bankruptcy reconstruction hearing due in the Central Bankruptcy Court on August 17th, the continued grounding of the Thai Airways fleet, and the delay in refund processing, it would be wise to avoid the airline for now.
Source: Thai Airways
