Thai AirAsia axes services

Low-cost carrier Thai AirAsia has axed two routes — Phuket-Bali and Phuket-Ubon Ratchathani effective 1 October, upsetting passengers who claim they were given little or no warning. Phuket News a leading online news service on the island, lambasted the airline for not informing passengers well in advance. It warned of a backlash of criticism from northeastern folk who live on the island and used the Ubon service to return home to visit relatives. Thai AirAsia’s call centre told TTR Weekly that both direct flights from Phuket to Ubon in Northeast Thailand and Bali were dropped Monday with very little notice to passengers. Passengers who had used just one leg of the journey to Ubon and Bali were left wondering how they would return to Phuket as the airline gave then insufficient notice to make other travel plans. “The airline has to cut the two direct flights permanently due business considerations,”  airline staff stated. “Passengers who have already booked those flights have to check the compensation options available on our website.” They can accept a credit shell for the next online booking excluding processing fee and insurance payment. They can ask for a refund or they can reroute their flight via Bangkok using AirAsia service for the Ubon Ratchathani service. The airline posted the following notice on its website: “Hold on! Looks like the flights for this date are unavailable or sold out…” The airline sent a statement to Phuket News: “The withdrawals are due to AirAsia X’s realignment of its network with AirAsia X focusing on its core markets and concentrating our capacity in Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea where we have built up stable, profitable routes within an infrastructure that supports low-cost services.” It served only to confuse passengers who were wondering what the connection was between AirAsia X and the services they had booked on Thai AirAsia to either Bali or Ubon. Thai AirAsia announced, late last month, a new service to Xi’an, its third destination in China after Chongqing and Wuhan. The carrier will commence a daily service to Xi’an 16 November following the launch of a daily service to Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China 19 October. Thai AirAsia will be the only carrier operating a schedule service on the Bangkok-Xi’an route. From ttrweekly