Thai Airways has confirmed that it will suspend almost all of its passenger flight operations amid the ongoing Coronavirus crisis.
The Bangkok-based airline will first suspend destinations within Asia, effective Wednesday, March 25. On March 27, this will also be extended to its four destinations in Australia. Its European routes will not be entirely suspended, but most flights to the continent would be cancelled by April 1.
Meanwhile, remaining domestic flights to Chiang Mai Phuket and Krabi will be transferred to its regional low-cost subsidiary Thai Smile, the company announced.
A number of flights, including to all destinations in India and Italy, were already cancelled by Thai Airways.
All suspensions are due to last until May 31, with flights not restarting before June 1.
As for every airline during this crisis, cargo-only flights are excluded from global restrictions, and therefore continue to operate. Repatriation flights are also exempted. Thai Airways is ready to charter flights on behalf of the government to fly Thai nationals stranded abrod back to the country.
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Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.