Published:  00:00 Friday - April 15, 2011

Thai Airways International (THAI) has emailed to travel firms and ticketing agents in Vietnam announcing a change to the departure time for its flights from Tan Son Nhat International Airport in the summer schedule that lasts until October.

The airline said that its morning flight TG551 left Tan Son Nhat at 11:15 a.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in the summer schedule, nearly an hour later than the departure time in the winter schedule. This means the morning arriving flight TG550 lands an hour later on these days.

The unexpected change due to unavailable slot times during the busy hours at the airport in HCMC has resulted in less connecting times and choices for passengers on the carrier’s flights in the morning to board its flights at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok to European destinations.

“THAI tried to request extension of the winter 2010-2011 slot time of TG550/TG551, leaving Saigon at 10:20 a.m. local time to cover the summer months of 2011. Unfortunately, the slot time that we prefer is not available,” said Narinthorn Purnagupta, general manager of THAI in Vietnam.

The carrier said it would help those passengers who are affected by the new departure time and miss the connecting flights to European destinations they wanted. They should contact the airline on May 31 this year at the latest.

THAI is the largest foreign full-serviced airline active in Vietnam in terms of flight frequencies as it operates four daily roundtrip flights between Bangkok and Vietnam, with two to and from each of HCMC and Hanoi.

Purnagupta said the number of THAI’s flights in and out of Vietnam in the summer schedule remained the same as in the winter schedule.

Source: The Saigon times