Thailand: Fewer trips seen as infections rise

A bleak economic winter is forecast for the New Year holiday as airlines are seeing declining bookings and the TAT estimates only 2.75m domestic trips for the upcoming period. Nuntaporn Komonsittivate, head of commercial operations at Thai Lion Air (TLA), said tourism demand softened significantly because of a recent surge in new Covid-19 cases locally, which began earlier this month. The spread began among Thais who brought the virus over from Myanmar to Chiang Rai, followed by a big cluster of infections that emerged over recent days in Samut Sakhon. Prior to the new wave of infections, TLA forecast December to be its best month in a crisis-plagued year as local confidence had been improving month-by-month. The average load factor for TLA in November hit 75%, prompting the airline to forecast it reaching 80-85% this month. "The colder weather this month was favourable for tourism activities, but unfortunately the string of new cases weakened passenger demand. As of now, the monthly load factor is lingering at 70%, while forward booking is difficult to predict," she said. Thai AirAsia reported an average load factor of 80-85% in December, below the 90% recorded for the same period last year.<br/>