First international flight to Krabi launches, Finnair from Helsinki

Finnair has launched the first international flight to Krabi with a flight running from Helsinki 4 times a week. The inaugural test flight came last week on December 1 and brought 96 travellers to the tourism hotspot that has been struggling to reopen. After the first flight last week, regular service began on Wednesday and will run through March 24.

The first relaunching Finnair flight was welcomed at Krabi International Airport by a crowd of business executives and top-level tourism operators. Tourism Authority of Thailand officials joined the greeting with the Krabi Office Director and the Deputy Executive Director Europe, Africa and the Middle East Region on hand as well as the Krabi Airport Director, the Chairman of the Krabi Chamber of Commerce, and the Presidents of the Krabi Tourism Association and Krabi Hotel Association.

TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn called the reopening of the Finland to Krabi route a “good sign for us” as he spoke of the importance of the Scandinavian market serviced by this new flight route.

“Finnair is an important inbound airline for Thailand’s tourism industry, bringing quality tourists from Finland and the Nordic market. The resumption of Finnair’s Helsinki-Krabi route is a good sign for us, as Thailand reopens to tourism and with the Visit Thailand Year 2022 campaign coming up.”

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, travellers from Finland were what the TAT and government has been calling high-quality tourists. 128,012 Finnish travellers came to Thailand and spent 10.1 billion baht, an average of over 79,000 baht per person. An impressive 50% of those travellers – and that tourism revenue money – were in Krabi, with 63,375 visitors from Finland spending over 5 billion baht.

Now Krabi welcomes back the Finnair flights alongside a host of charter flights operated by TUI. The Department of Airports approved a measure to increase the number of international flights permitted to land in Krabi throughout December. Scoot Airlines will now operate a flight from Singapore 3 times a week and 5 charter flights are scheduled from Scandinavia throughout the month: from Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, and Gothenburg.

SOURCE: Thailand Business News