Thai Airways makes wholesale changes to India service in winter 2013-14

by Vinay Bhaskara

Bangkok based full service carrier Thai Airways International has announced a series of changes in its Indian services in the winter 2013-14 season as per the Airline Route blog

On its Bangkok-Delhi services, beginning 30th September, services will increase from 11 weekly to 14 weekly.

Daytime Thai flights TG323/TG324 will increase from four flights per week to daily using a 299 seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft in a two-class configuration (36J / 263Y). TG-323 departs Bangkok at 07:35, arriving at Delhi at 10:30. The return flight TG-324 departs Delhi at 11:55 arriving at Bangkok at 17:25.

The red-eye flights TG315/TG316 are also seeing an increase, with Boeing 747-400s replacing the existing Boeing 777-300s, an increase from 364 seats (34J / 330 Y) to 374 (49J / 325 Y) or 375 seats (50J / 325 Y), depending on the day. The up-gauge represents a large increase in premium cabin capacity by almost 45% regardless of the 747 configuration used on the route.

TG 315 departs Bangkok at 20:40, arriving at Delhi at 23:40. The return red-eye (overnight) TG 316 departs Delhi at 00:55, arriving at Bangkok at 06:20, in time for connections to Thai’s morning departure bank to Asia and Australia. Both flights are operated daily.

Bangkok – Hyderabad was planned to increase from four flights per week to five using the A330-300, but these plans have been shelved, with services remaining at four per week this winter.

The daily Bangkok-Mumbai services have been down-gauged from Boeing 747-400 to Airbus A330-300s for the winter season, a capacity downgrade of around 20% (roughly 35% in premium cabins).

Additionally, Thai’s low cost wing Thai Smile, which by January 2014 will serve 19 destinations across India, China, Laos, Macau, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, is also shaking up its India operations. Thai Smile has a fleet of six 174 seat (30Y+ / 144 Y) Airbus A320-200s with its primary hub at Bangkok and a secondary hub at Phuket. Thai Smile is shifting its flight numbers to and from India, and increasing services as well.

Flight Number Changes

• Bankgok-Ahmedabad flights are shifting from TG 765/766 to TG 2935/2936
• Phuket-Delhi flights are shifting from TG 761/762 to TG 2931/2932
• Phuket-Mumbai flights are shifting from TG 763/764 to TG 2933/2934

• Bangkok-Ahmedabad increases from two to four weekly flights
• Phuket-Delhi increases from two to four weekly flights
• Phuket-Mumbai increases from two to three weekly flights