By Greg Waldron2021-04-01T11:09:00+01:00
Bangkok Airways Airline chief executive Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth makes no bones about how challenging Covid-19 has been for the full-service carrier, whose strategy had relied on supporting international carriers by flying codeshare passengers to Thailand’s myriad tourism destinations.
“2020 was very, very tough… something that we’ve never been through before,” he says. “Of course there are crises from time to time, such as SARS… but [Covid-19] has probably hit everyone in the world.”
Source: Bangkok Airways
Bangkok Airways chief executive Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth
Thailand government statistics show that the country’s international travel restrictions have eliminated a once thriving foreign tourism market. In December 2020, the country had 6,556 tourist arrivals, a 99.8% decline from 3.9 million in December 2019. Starting in April 2020 – a month that experienced zero tourist arrivals – monthly tourism statis