THAI is seeking an alliance with as many as 10 other Asian carriers in order to add destinations and counter a similar move grouping together several of its low-cost rivals. A series of bilateral accords could unite airlines from across the region to boost connectivity in India and China and smaller markets such as Myanmar and Vietnam, said Charamporn Jotikasthira, Thai’s president. The company lacks the cash to expand its network via acquisitions, he said. The plan signals a move away from simply siphoning more connecting traffic through Bangkok as envisaged in Thai’s two-year turnaround strategy, Jotikasthira said, and comes after the formation last month of the Value Alliance coalition of eight budget carriers spanning Japan to Australia. “Demand has been changing,” the executive said. “All the requests on air traffic control into Thailand has been point-to-point to secondary cities. The model that we’ve been preaching in the past is going to be different.” While leading Asian operators such as Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific remain global players, other flag carriers have reached the same conclusion as Thai. Malaysia Airlines is more advanced with moves to turn Kuala Lumpur into a regional hub and says it will order new planes to ply under-served short-haul routes in the next few months. The Value grouping, while set to be the world’s biggest alliance of low-cost airlines, may not trouble Thai unduly, since it brings together smaller players including Singapore’s Scoot and Cebu Pacific Air of the Philippines that have a combined fleet about the same size as local low-cost No. 1 AirAsia. Any Asian pact involving Thai must complement its role in the Star Alliance, Jotikasthira said, adding that he wants to expand relationships with existing partners including Lufthansa after Thailand escaped possible blacklisting in an EU safety review in December.<br/>
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Moscow stands out as the only one of four long-haul destinations axed by THAI last year to see a revival. The flag carrier aims to resume regular flights from Bangkok to the Russian capital in October as the route appears to offer profit potential again despite Russia's economic woes. THAI has opted not to revive its non-stop services from Bangkok to Madrid, Johannesburg and Los Angeles -- routes that incurred heavy losses and plunged the airline into a financial crisis over the past three years. THAI president Charamporn Jotikasthira confirmed the strategic approach as part of an ongoing turnaround scheme. He also made it clear that THAI will never revive flights to Los Angeles should the restrictions imposed by the US FAA on Thai-registered airlines be lifted. "We are not looking at going back to Los Angeles because it is too far, gas-guzzling and crowded with competitors, and we never make money [from the route]," Charamporn said. "We need to look at other cities in North America such as Seattle and Vancouver, which offer more potential if we decide to return to the continent." <br/>
Air Canada consistently flouts the Official Languages Act and Parliament must do more to pressure the company to comply with the rules, Canada’s official languages commissioner said Tuesday. As he tabled a special report on the airline in the Commons, Graham Fraser said his office doesn’t have enough power to force it to offer more French-language services. “My predecessors and I have used all of the tools at our disposal in order to help Air Canada improve its compliance to the act,” he said. “However, after 45 years, the same issues continue to repeat themselves.” He said his office continues to receive complaints about unilingual anglophone employees on Air Canada flights between Montreal and northern Quebec and beefs regarding employees who refuse to get French-speaking agents to help francophone travellers. Fraser said what turns an unhappy passenger into a complainant is the contempt the airline’s employees allegedly show toward people who ask for service in French. Fraser’s report is specifically about the airline, which under federal law is obligated to provide French-language services. Air Canada said Fraser’s report was unjustified as the number of complaints against the company has remained stable at around 50 a year. “The commissioner’s contention that there is an exceptional, systemic problem of non-compliance by Air Canada … has been rejected by both the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada,” the airline said. “Punitive measures aimed at Air Canada as suggested by this report are without credible justification, misdirected and would not contribute to promoting bilingualism in Canada or improving the level of services in both official languages available to Canadian travellers.”<br/>