Airlines seek meeting with Prayut
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published : 13 May 2021 at 07:08
2 A view inside Suvarnabhumi airport at 5pm on Monday. The number of travellers has fallen by half since the virus outbreak. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)
Seven airlines are seeking to meet Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to ask about the government s stand on their request for long-awaited soft loans.
The Thai Airlines Association said on Wednesday it would like to discuss with Gen Prayut any progress on the proposal, which if granted, would throw domestic carriers their much-needed financial lifeline.
Seven local airlines Thai AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X, Bangkok Airways, Nok Air, Thai Smile Airways, Thai Lion Air and Thai Vietjet Air have sought 14 billion baht in soft loans to sustain their operations. Even that sum was a substantial reduction on the 24 billion baht they requested last year.
BANGKOK, 13 May 2021: The Thai Airline Association has asked the government to underwrite soft loans for the seven airlines serving domestic routes in Thailand.
The proposal also requests assistance for airline employees to fast-track the vaccination timeframe. It argues that airline staff are on the frontline like health workers and should be prioritised for the vaccine jab programme that gets underway on 7 June. Initially, the vaccine rollout will start with citizens and residents 60 years and over.
Thailand Airlines Association is made up of seven airlines;
Bangkok Airways, Thai AirAsia, Thai AirAsia X, Thai Smile Airways, Nok Air,
Thai Lion Air and Thai Vietjet Airways.
Analysis
The Vietnamese government has estimated that following a rapid pre-pandemic rise in passenger numbers, the requirement for airport infrastructure during the next five years will be twice what it was in the past five years.
Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) reports that VND25 trillion (USD1 billion) has been invested in expanding airport infrastructure over the past five years to support passenger and cargo growth, but that it will need approximately VND120 trillion (USD5.2 billion) from 2021 to 2025 to complete infrastructure projects.
Vietnam s passenger and cargo traffic increased by an average of 17% and 13% respectively from 2012 to 2019.
However, there are questions about the selection of infrastructure projects, their geography, and whether traffic forecasts have been exaggerated.
First person: Traveling in Thailand during Covid-19 ttgasia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ttgasia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
/ Posted on 6 May, 2021 15:32
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Thailand has gone through several phases of safety and hygiene protocols when it comes to domestic travel.
The country is now in the midst of its third and most intense wave of Covid-19, with safety protocols intensifying throughout the country on a provincial basis, as there has of yet been no countrywide mandate about domestic travel from the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), unlike during the lockdown in the summer of 2020.
Passengers entering the airport are diverted to a few doorways equipped with temperature scanning machines
Airport procedures
The protocols at the airports have remained mostly the same until now for domestic travellers – registration on the Mor Chana app for all travellers – but now in the midst of the third wave, some provinces have started requiring a Covid-free test result prior to travel, or a PCR test on arrival, whence if travellers test positive they will have to