It's hard to believe. After announcing his return so many times - and putting it off just as many times - here we have Thai Airways International has announced that it can officially resume its scheduled flights to Europe. Admittedly, we are still a long way from a massive return of the Thai carrier, which has been absent from European skies for over a year, with a few rare exceptions. Especially since Thailand's national carrier will not be resuming its scheduled service to Bangkok. Instead, passengers will land at Phuketin the south of the country. The island, one of the kingdom's tourist icons, is the first to reopen to foreign travellers.
Phuket without quarantine
From 1st July, Vaccinated visitors from low-risk countries will be able to travel without quarantine.. The minimum stay on the island is seven days, with complete freedom of movement. After these seven days, visitors can travel to the rest of the country, including Bangkok..
This decision was taken by the authorities at a time when Thailand is currently facing an unprecedented wave of cases of covid-19. Between 1 April and 1 June, the number of positive cases rose from 29,000 to more than 162,000, while the number of deaths has now risen to almost 1,100. At the beginning of April, the kingdom had only recorded 94 deaths.
Phuket has so far only recorded a few cases due to its insularity.. A situation that the authorities are capitalising on. The island is expected to spearhead a recovery in tourism, which is vital to the country's economy. This special status explains the planned return of airlines to Phuket. Thai Airways has launched a programme of special flights from Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London and Paris. to test the market. The airline will first offer its flights to tourism professionals before opening them up to a larger number of travellers. Thai Airways will offer one flight a week to these four European cities.
KLM, Qatar return
For its part, Qatar Airways is more ambitious. It will propose four weekly flights from 1 July to Phuket from Doha, in addition to its 12 weekly frequencies to Bangkok. Emirates also confirmed the return of its Phuket service from 2 July. Four flights a week will be offered for sale. And we also know that KLM will be serving Phuket for the first time this winter.
For the time being, you need a flight certificate issued by the Thai embassy to travel to Phuket. The extension of the state of health emergency until 31 July - decided on Tuesday 1 June - classifies flights as "semi-commercial". This is the first step on the long road back to normality for Thailand.
