TUI Nordic Chief Executive Christian Clemens announced that the charter operations to Thailand for the winter 2010 will increase the capacity by 30% from the previous year up to a total of 135 000 passengers.
In addition to operating 767 aircrafts, the operator also intends to reinstate the 582 seats Boeing 747 aircrafts, operating exclusively to Thailand, flying three times weekly to Phuket and once weekly to Bangkok.
TUI Nordic is the tour operator to bring the largest number of passengers to various destinations in Thailand, flying from eleven airports in the Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
In addition to the winter program, TUI Nordic also operates charter to Thailand in the summer. 90% of the capacity is already sold, which is good news for the Thai tourism industry in these difficult times. Christian Clemens today confirmed that the summer program with direct charter flights will continue also in 2011.
Winter sales for 2010/2011 started very well when the program was launched in December last year. However, the sales speed has been affected by the recent political situation in Bangkok.
“We have so far sold 8 000 more trips compared to the same period last year, but in order to get sale speed up to where it should be, sales stimulating initiatives are needed. We have an ongoing discussion with the Tourism Authority of Thailand about marketing campaigns in the Nordic countries. According to Christian Clemens, other initiatives that could stimulate a quicker sales recovery could be a possible support from the Thai Government to lower airport taxes and landing fees. This recovery method has been successfully implemented in some other tourist destinations.
