Thai Airways to Add WiFi, Mobile Services

According to CNNGo, Thai Airways has just announced that they will be rolling out in-flight mobile and wireless Internet (wifi) services around the middle of this year. While such services have now become common in some parts of the world, they’re still very rare in Southeast Asia.

The services will initially be available on the airline’s new Airbus A380s, which are due for delivery this year, as well as seven of the existing A330s which serve European and regional routes. All flights will have the services by the end of 2014.

The services will be provided through a partnership with OnAir. Pricing has not been announced by Thai, but will probably be in line with other airlines’ fees. See the full CNNGo article for more details.

 

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New Routes for Bangkok Airways

Some good news from Bangkok Airways: Beginning 31 March they will begin directly flights between Samui and Kuala Lumpur. I’m not sure what’s taken them so long to start flying this route, but I’m sure it will be welcome news to a lot of travelers and sun worshipers in Malaysia.

The airline will also start direct flights between Bangkok and the northern city of Lampang. Flights to Lampang previously stopped in Sukhothai, but as of 25 May it will be direct service.

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New Routes and Pricing for Bangkok Airport Link

I’m a little late in posting this, but it’s valid to the end of the year, so it’s still useful information. The Airport Link operator has added a second express route, connecting the airport to the Phayathai Station. This is no doubt due to the many transport problems related to the Makassan station, which apparently were obvious to everyone except the people who built it. Despite promises, there’s still no connection between the Airport Link station and the Petchburi Subway station, and in any event there are security issues taking luggage on to the subway.

The new route to Phayathai gives easy access to the Skytrain, which doesn’t have the same security restrictions as the subway. However, there are no luggage check-in facilities at Phayathai for those heading to the airport. The service runs every 20 minutes, alternating with the Makassan service.

As an ‘introductory’ offer, the price for the new route is just 90 Baht one way, or 150 Baht for a round-trip ticket. The return ticket for the round-trip is good for two weeks. The special pricing is good until the end of 2011, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it remained the normal fare, since the service is finding it difficult to get people to cough up 150 Baht for the regular service.

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