Thai to serve BRU as from Nov 2011 !

[EBKT]

finally!!! great new as well for the extra transit passangers it will deliver for the '*A hub' BRU who those who will travel into Africa...
Not sure if there is a big demand/offer in SE Asia for travelling to African countries..

[Atlantis]

Competition for Jetairfly indeed.
A Belgian airline announced this route, but everybody is happy a Thai airline will perform the same flight. I just find this strange...

Don't worries the flights of Jetairfly to Phuket and Bankok will do fine because pax can now fly "direct" instead of via via.

On the other hand the business pax and regular travellers will also find their way with TG. So every happy with this solution.

But at this moment nothing official in the pipeline or visible. It's a matter of days now I think
But I think it will be a morning or noon flight as they will transit pax for Africa.

[tolipanebas]

Morning arrival, noon departure is indeed best from a connecting point of view: EU, US and AFI.

[andorra-airport]

I hope tolipanebas can enlighten us?

I think it's perfectly clear by now, isn't it?

Yes, all is clear now, thank you!

[kookongsi]

I still hope for an afternoon arrival: enough connections EU and maybe in the (not so distant) future SN-connections to the US. I doubt the thai-AFI traffic is going trough BRU (if possible) and not via the ME-carriers, but who knows the loyal STAR-travellers?

[RoMax]

According to HLN Thai announced this news at a press conferention about the results of Star Alliance at BRU. SN said they will work together with Thai and they will also offer AFI connections (so, morning arrival). SN said this proves that their alliance membership works and delivers results.

At least this is wat SN wanted (they asked for it when they entered Star and Thai said they would look again at the BRU market), so lets hope it will work (especially because it is non-stop).

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/1901/reisnieuw ... ogen.dhtml

[Desert Rat]

Kom poon kap!!

[funki]

Don't worries the flights of Jetairfly to Phuket and Bankok will do fine because pax can now fly "direct" instead of via via.

On the other hand the business pax and regular travellers will also find their way with TG. So every happy with this solution.

JAF is not a full charter company anymore as in the 'old sense'. About 60% or more of their flights are scheduled flights and they obtained rights to sell 'ticket only' for all their destinations for every nationality...So I think they also hoped to attract regular travelers and the odd business traveler from time to time...

JAF doesn't advertises its long haul destinations very hard like e.g. Orlando in the past, or Sri Lanka, Maledives... Most people don't know, so don't book, so routes are often cancelled after 1 season...
I'm afraid it will be hard to 'win' from THY...also a rather new comfy B777 3/week against older 767 weekly, where you only have personal IFE in Comfort class (otherwise you have to pay extra). Same for choice of meal + complimentary alcohol in Economy with Thai...
Hope for JAF their 787 will arive soon and hope the flight to Phuket will attract extra pax Otherwise I think a carrier of a small country can't compete with the "Big Boys" or it should be that JAF's ticketprices are lower then THY...but then it would be too hard to make it profitable probably...

[jancnx]

Now I fly with egyptair to Bangkok. This would be wonderful news if the price was acceptable as was posted before it ll be around 800 - 1200 euro. That's too much, I prefer paying +/- 550 and wait 2 hrs in Cairo then.
Recently Egyptair took a new plane in use to fly from CAI to BKK.

[itami]

Excellent news! It would be a nice regular visitor to BRU.
Congratulations to Thai on their return to BRU! Let's hope it'll steadily increase frequency in the coming seasons.

I guess Thai will most probably be handled by Flightcare

[capetown]

I think it's perfectly clear by now, isn't it?

Yes it is , other sources are picking it up too :

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nl-NL/Ar ... ar_Brussel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Airwa ... stinations

This being said, TG seems to be "on the rise" with their product. They climbed to nr. 5 in Skytrax' 'airline of the year' survey (just released yesterday), and they won both "Best Airline Econonomy Class Onboard Catering" and "Best Airline Economy Class Seat" awards ...

http://www.prthaiairways.com/thaiair_4p ... n&dng=1208

Also interesting - TG is set to become an all wide body operator, its 737-400's (of which I flew one in april between BKK and Krabi) being phased out and the replacement A320's ordered to be dedicated to the planned subsidiary (although the Bangkok Post calls it a 'sister company') Thai Wings ("a full service airline, with "budget fares", thus positioning itself between TG and its subsidiary Nok Air").
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/avi ... -body-only

[tolipanebas]

Well, you didn't expect me to have drafted that press release all by myself now, did you?
I am not like some NCB-ish member, who needs pure fiction to make headlines!

[BrightCedars]

I am convinced that if there was one SE Asian hub that is most suitable in the Star Alliance galaxy for SN it is BKK.

Shortest trip compared to SIN so shorter total travel time and no or less backtracking, a strong point-to-point market to support the operation, and many connections in the region.

I reckon that with TG covering SE Asia via BKK and hopefully soon NH covering Japan, and with the current cooperation on India with 9W and China with HU, there is little left to plug other than perhaps a flight to SEL together with OZ. Perhaps only HKG will remain worthy of a nonstop route but that could come as part of HU group's local offshoot.

[Kabila]

Arrival time from BKK into BRU will be at 06.45am on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. (departure in BKK just after midnight)

Departure from BRU back to BKK will be at 13.30pm on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, arriving early next morning, around 6am local in BKK.

[Certair32]

One question remains which is more or less connected with this topic. What equipment will Thomas Cook use to fly to Bangkok or Phuket? Will they fly with XL-airways as they did in the past? Or will they buy seats with Thai to Bangkok and then connect to Phuket? Or will they work with an other airline?

[guuuuuust]

Woow that's just fantastic, finally after all that time of waiting !!

[cnc]

One question remains which is more or less connected with this topic. What equipment will Thomas Cook use to fly to Bangkok or Phuket? Will they fly with XL-airways as they did in the past? Or will they buy seats with Thai to Bangkok and then connect to Phuket? Or will they work with an other airline?

JAF?

[tolipanebas]

Just for reference, the daily STAR alliance frequencies between BKK and some other STAR hubs in Europe:

FRA: 3 (2 x TG on 744, 1 x LH on 744)
ZRH: 2 (1 x TG on A346, 1 x LX on A343)
MUC: 1 (TG on 744)
VIE: 1 (OS on 772)
CPH: 2 (1 x TG on 747, 1 x SK on A343)
ARN: 1 (TG on 744)
OSL: 1 (TG on 772)
LHR: 2 (TG on 744)
MAD: 1 (TG on 744)

So let's say there's still room for future growth at BRU with just a trice weekly flight on 772...

[Certair32]

One question remains which is more or less connected with this topic. What equipment will Thomas Cook use to fly to Bangkok or Phuket? Will they fly with XL-airways as they did in the past? Or will they buy seats with Thai to Bangkok and then connect to Phuket? Or will they work with an other airline?

JAF?

Could be, but wouldn't it get a little crowed then on board of the 767 with 3 TO's (Jetair, Best Tours by Kuoni, Thomas Cook ... (possible?)) on board of the same flights? Until now only Jetair and Best Tours announced their collaboration!

[globetrotter]

Next fall? its this year, not next year.