Krabi schedules 82 flights per week from late October

Despite no official legal plans to reopen Thailand to international tourism, and perhaps on the heels of PM Prayut’s surprise announcement in a speech Wednesday that he intends to fully reopen Thailand by mid-October, 8 airlines received slots for international flights into Krabi from the end of October.

The allotment was determined as part of the IATA Slot Conference, this year held virtually from Tuesday to Thursday. The Director-General of the Department of Airports for Thailand took the occasion of the conference to promote Krabi to global airlines, highlighting improvements to the airport to be ready to accommodate more passengers in the terminals and more flights arriving and departing. He also stressed that Thailand will be ready by the end of October to welcome international travellers.

The conference, which is a bit like a draft in many sports, was held for the 148th time this week to determine how to schedule airlines servicing airports worldwide. The process brings together airlines and airports to schedule out which airlines will receive permission to take off and land at each airport each day or week. During this conference, Krabi International Airport has confirmed up to 82 flights per week between October 31 of this year and March 26, 2022.

A big chunk of flights was awarded to AirAsia to use on their Kuala Lumpur to Krabi route 28 times per week. Scoot Tigerair was the only other Southeast Asian airline allotted flights, being given 10 slots each week from Singapore to Krabi.

Scandinavia will have 2 main options to fly to Krabi as Finnair confirms 3 flight slots per week from Helsinki and Norwegian Air picking up 1 flight weekly from Oslo to Krabi. There will also be a third option as charter airline TUIfly Nordic will operate a charter route hopping around Scandinavia before heading to Krabi, with stops in Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm. They will begin charter flights on November 7 and have been allotted 16 flights.

Chinese carriers also got a decent slice of the schedule, with a total of 21 flights per week. Shanghai Airlines will fly 7 times weekly from Shanghai to Krabi, while China Eastern is planning 7 flights a week from Urumqi to Hefei to Krabi. Sichuan Airlines and Spring Airlines will both fly from Chengdu, with Sichuan picking up 4 flights weekly and Spring Airlines grabbing 3 slots. Spring Airlines will also operate 3 flights between Shenzhen and Krabi.

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SOURCE: Thai PBS World