News Forum - All Betong airport flights cancelled just 24 hours after airport opening

[Thaiger]

Less than 24 hours after PM Prayut Chan-o-cha arrived on the first flight into Betong International Airport to chair the opening ceremony, all scheduled flights in and out of the airport have been suspended. At present, it is not possible to book flights in or out of Betong and it is not yet known when flights will resume. The Tourism Council of Thailand, Nok Air and ticket sellers will meet on March 21 to discuss the future of flight schedules at Betong airport. Today, Nok Air issued a statement apologising for cancelling the scheduled flights between Betong and Don Mueang […]

The story All Betong airport flights cancelled just 24 hours after airport opening as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Prosaap]

Built it and they will come no research needed its get real hard to not see them as idiots 

[King Cotton]

1 hour ago, Thaiger said:

Less than 24 hours after PM Prayut Chan-o-cha arrived on the first flight into Betong International Airport to chair the opening ceremony, all scheduled flights in and out of the airport have been suspended.

 . . . Only 10 passengers were aboard the first flight into Betong airport on March 14, including PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, who chaired the airport’s opening ceremony.

Let's face it . . . Thailand's PM wouldn't have wanted to travel on a plane full of ordinary folk, would he . . . so that was him, happy!

[Totoro]

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[Guest1]

Shut it down, in total?

That can be either b/c of a threat (deep south) or b/c of outer statistic C-numbers, perhaps?

But just b/c of not enough (predidted) bookings? Come on, reducing flights to one a day/week would be enough for that!

[Graham]

Hey why not, the government has bought a submarine without an engine, might as well have an airport without planes. 555

TIT.

[King Cotton]

5 minutes ago, Graham said:

Hey why not, the government has bought a submarine without an engine, might as well have an airport without planes. 555

TIT.

I was going to say 'like a government without brains' . . . but thought better of it. 

[Convert54]

Is very strange to hype an event such as and then announce it non operational

Ghost  flight function?.

[JJJ]

It’s a bit odd to blame a lack of tourists when well there are so few tourists to begin with. Even being from America I had never heard about the US travel advisory but living  in Thailand know about the occasional issues in the South. 
 

It seems like this should be a purely local demand route. Even flying to more well known but not super popular areas like Esarn you’ll see what at most 6 tourists on a packed plane?
 

 I have never considered traveling to central peninsula for a holiday. Has anyone else?   

[JJJ]

Also I bet they could have built a functional arrivals app for 10% of an airport no one wants. 

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

50 minutes ago, King Cotton said:

I was going to say 'like a government without brains' . . . but thought better of it. 

But it did ….. they at least managed to get a return flight there  

[King Cotton]

8 minutes ago, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

But it did ….. they at least managed to get a return flight there  

Yeah . . . sadly!

[BBY]

When will the penny (Baht) drop. “THERE ARE NO TOURISTS” well ok, a very small insignificant amount of external tourists. Certainly not anywhere near enough to open a new airport and expect the flights to be cost effective or full and there won’t be until you drop the ridiculous entry procedures such as test and go.

There are also not any internal tourists, because they don’t have any money. No job = large debt and no money. 
 

Come on TAT make it happen 
 

 

[Cathat]

that airport will be useful to the government one way or another long term.nobody goes to all the trouble and expense involved of building a new airport complete with instrument approaches for no reason.

the political situation in the area looks to be deteriorating at the moment and it is an ideal location to base or use as a diversion for the splendid new turbo prop ground attack aircraft that have been ordered.they are the modern far more potent equivalent of old spooky that was used to good effect in vietnam.

when the political problems in the area are resolved for good the area has a lot of potential for tourism.

win win situation really.

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

3 hours ago, Cathat said:

when the political problems in the area are resolved for good

As it has a religious factor involved here, do you really think this is going to be resolved any time soon? And yet to have a quote from TAT with one of there famous predictions of tourist numbers for this area as well. Like your win win quote though.

[Soidog]

15 hours ago, Prosaap said:

Built it and they will come no research needed its get real hard to not see them as idiots 

Stop looking. They are idiots. 

[Soidog]

Doesn’t matter. Lots of money skimmed from building the airport anyway. It’s served it’s purpose 

[Leeshard]

Not quite sure why it’s called an international airport. It can’t even get flights from Bangkok established. There are certainly not going to be any international flights in the foreseeable future, if ever. There aren’t any even to Nakhon Si Thammarat airport and that’s a fairly popular domestic destination.