Bangkok - Thai AirAsia has cut its flights between Bangkok
and Yangon from seven to three a week, due to a 50 per cent drop in
bookings as a result of unrest in Myanmar and a drop in confidence
in no-frills airlines, news reports said Tuesday.
Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld said the
political upheaval in Myanmar had exacerbated the airline's existing
problems with declining bookings because of the crash of another Thai
no-frills airline One-Two-Go in Phuket, Thailand, on September 16 in
which 90 people died.
The accident has led to a 5 to 10 per cent drop in bookings for
all budget airlines in Thailand, including Thai AirAsia, Tassapon
told The Nation newspaper.
The airline started to cut its Bangkok-Yangon flights on Monday
and will have dropped them to three a week by the end of this month.
Thai Airways International (THAI), the national carrier, has yet
to cut its thrice-daily flights from Bangkok to Yangon, but it has
rescheduled its late flights TG 305 and TG 306 to allow passengers to
get into the city before the 9:00 p.m. local time curfew goes into
effect.
Yangon was the scene of daily monk-led protests between September
19 to 28 that ended in a brutal crackdown by the ruling military
regime that left at least 10 people dead, although other sources
estimate the death toll as much higher.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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