How would Thai Airways' Australian routes be performing financially?

[Melburnian1]

This makes no mention of Australian routes that are continuing as normal for Thai Airways (TG):

Thai Airways to cut 1,401 jobs, suspend flights to U.S. | Reuters

While overall yield (bearing in mind that TG carries quite a lot of freight, above its market share for passengers in and out of Australia) is more important, the April 2015 government statistics show that TG has only moderate passenger loadings (see Table 3):

http://bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/files/International_airline_activity_1504.pdf

My perception of TG is that after being a major player in the 1980s and 1990s to and from Oz, it has slowly receded into the background. It does not seem to get a lot of media in the consumer travel press (such as 'The Australian' and 'Sydney Morning Herald'/ 'The Age' Saturday travel supplements) and nor does it heavily advertise (if at all.)

Do AFFers think that any of TG's '50 loss making routes' would include some of the Australian ones? (see the Reuters article above.)

 

[anna2103]

Flight loadings into out of Brisbane seem to be quite erratic based on my travels this year.

 

[smit0847]

I dont think TG really cares about being profitable. Theyd be making far more drastic changes if they were.

 

[yohy?!]

I dont think TG really cares about being profitable. Theyd be making far more drastic changes if they were.

Id tend to agree, i think theyre more for being a source of forex for the government to counterbalance their skewed economy and the baht

 

[soorox]

TG seem to be doing well in MEL, holding their weight at x2 daily flights for quite some time now - the highest frequency of any Australian city TG operates to. TG is still quite competitive in MEL, but they definitely need to update their cabin to attract more premium pax, I just recently took 4 segments with them in the past 2 weeks and all 4 legs was full in both J and Y, 2 of them MEL-BKK sectors. Whilst some Australian routes are less reliant on Europe, the MEL flights do continue to see quite a lot of European transfers.

1 thing I will mention is that TG catering has gone down the toilet, I use to love TG catering especially exBKK, but it has seriously gone from flavoursome to bland.

 

[smit0847]

I dont think their scheduling has any correlation to the success of the routes.

 

[Isochronous]

TG seem to be doing well in MEL, holding their weight at x2 daily flights for quite some time now - the highest frequency of any Australian city TG operates to. TG is still quite competitive in MEL, but they definitely need to update their cabin to attract more premium pax, I just recently took 4 segments with them in the past 2 weeks and all 4 legs was full in both J and Y, 2 of them MEL-BKK sectors. Whilst some Australian routes are less reliant on Europe, the MEL flights do continue to see quite a lot of European transfers.

1 thing I will mention is that TG catering has gone down the toilet, I use to love TG catering especially exBKK, but it has seriously gone from flavoursome to bland.

QF should seriously look at MEL-BKK.

 

[moa999]

Suspect of they did it would be with a star on the tail

 

[dajop]

Suspect of they did it would be with a star on the tail

Of course it's with a star on the tail. Jetstar have been flying MEL-BKK for years. One of the original international destinations (a bit of trivia, QF now serve 6 international destinations out of MEL, whilst JQ serve 10 if my memory serves me correctly.)

 

[yohy?!]

TG seem to be doing well in MEL, holding their weight at x2 daily flights for quite some time now - the highest frequency of any Australian city TG operates to. TG is still quite competitive in MEL, but they definitely need to update their cabin to attract more premium pax, I just recently took 4 segments with them in the past 2 weeks and all 4 legs was full in both J and Y, 2 of them MEL-BKK sectors. Whilst some Australian routes are less reliant on Europe, the MEL flights do continue to see quite a lot of European transfers.

1 thing I will mention is that TG catering has gone down the toilet, I use to love TG catering especially exBKK, but it has seriously gone from flavoursome to bland.

Interesting feedback on the TG catering, took them BKK-SIN last week and they were far better than QF on SYD-BKK a few days before. More flavourful and higher quality of raw ingredients used than QF by mile.

 

[RB]

Interesting feedback on the TG catering, took them BKK-SIN last week and they were far better than QF on SYD-BKK a few days before. More flavourful and higher quality of raw ingredients used than QF by mile.

Similar thoughts here. Thought the food we had on TG in May & June were fine and an improvement on TG in 2014

 

[Isochronous]

Of course it's with a star on the tail. Jetstar have been flying MEL-BKK for years. One of the original international destinations (a bit of trivia, QF now serve 6 international destinations out of MEL, whilst JQ serve 10 if my memory serves me correctly.)

JQ long-haul is a joke. I'm not touching that orange cancer!

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Of course it's with a star on the tail. Jetstar have been flying MEL-BKK for years. One of the original international destinations (a bit of trivia, QF now serve 6 international destinations out of MEL, whilst JQ serve 10 if my memory serves me correctly.)

Why JQ only flies 4 times per week on the MEL > NRT sector, whilst BNE gets a daily MEL > NRT service on QF is beyond me.
Hopefully MEL gets more international services on QF in the near future.... NRT & BKK must surely be the most likely routes to be reintroduced.

 

[soorox]

Interesting feedback on the TG catering, took them BKK-SIN last week and they were far better than QF on SYD-BKK a few days before. More flavourful and higher quality of raw ingredients used than QF by mile.

Maybe, I have been struck by bad decisions! I always choose the Thai/Asian option when on TG, the last meal I remembered I had last week was the steamed fish with jasmine rice. The dish wasn't as flavoursome as I remembered and was quite bland, this being a J meal too.

Why JQ only flies 4 times per week on the MEL > NRT sector, whilst BNE gets a daily MEL > NRT service on QF is beyond me.
Hopefully MEL gets more international services on QF in the near future.... NRT & BKK must surely be the most likely routes to be reintroduced.

I remember the golden days, flying a QF 747 to MEL from BKK (now DMK), flew the route about three times with QF.

JQ will be bumping up MEL-NRT to x6 weekly during the DEC-MAR peak. QF have been promoting heavily "Melbourne direct to Tokyo-Narita daily", obviously we know its not non-stop! Apparently sales for NRT aren't doing as stellar since the swap. I would love to see JL fly to MEL though!

 

[Isochronous]

Maybe, I have been struck by bad decisions! I always choose the Thai/Asian option when on TG, the last meal I remembered I had last week was the steamed fish with jasmine rice. The dish wasn't as flavoursome as I remembered and was quite bland, this being a J meal too.



I remember the golden days, flying a QF 747 to MEL from BKK (now DMK), flew the route about three times with QF.

JQ will be bumping up MEL-NRT to x6 weekly during the DEC-MAR peak. QF have been promoting heavily "Melbourne direct to Tokyo-Narita daily", obviously we know its not non-stop! Apparently sales for NRT aren't doing as stellar since the swap. I would love to see JL fly to MEL though!

A Japan service to PER is also necessary.

 

[Alanslegal]

Given that I only fly TG F using points I don't see how they are making money off me - that said I will see TG F in two weeks time but EK F in a few days time - yay!

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

A Japan service to PER is also necessary.

I would agree with this.
I've meet many Aussies from Perth whilst I've been in Japan on my past two trips & when I asked for their routing it was always CX via HKG.
So clearly CX has quite a bit of custom from the WA market to Japan.