Emirates eyes situation warily. Emirates aims to increase the number of passengers coming to Thailand by at least 20% as operations largely depend on the government's policy to ease travel restrictions, meeting more demand for travel to the country. Emirates currently operates three flights per day from Dubai to Bangkok as well as 11 direct flights per week from Dubai to Phuket. Bangkok Post

Emirates eyes situation warily

Mr Al Mutawa said the company's passenger target will keep changing as the pandemic situation is still very sensitive.

Emirates aims to increase the number of passengers coming to Thailand by at least 20% as operations largely depend on the government's policy to ease travel restrictions, meeting more demand for travel to the country.

"We are still in the pandemic, so the target in terms of passengers will keep changing as the situation is very sensitive," Tariq Al Mutawa, country manager, Thailand at Emirates, said.

"The goal at the moment is to grow the number of passengers by 20% year-on-year which is the lowest forecast. The airline has to monitor both local and international situations on a monthly or even weekly basis before adding more frequencies to Thailand."

"We are waiting for the golden moment when the government decides to let the Thailand Pass go, so it mostly depends on the government and how they control the border for passengers to Thailand," Mr Al Mutawa said.

Emirates currently operates three flights per day from Dubai to Bangkok as well as 11 direct flights per week from Dubai to Phuket.

Last year, the airline carried 136,451 passengers on its operations between Dubai and Thailand, mainly attributed to the opening of the Phuket sandbox in July, followed by Bangkok in the fourth quarter.

However, that number was a far cry from the 1.8 million passengers recorded in 2019.

The average load factor for all year operations for Bangkok and Phuket routes was around 70-90%, but this was from flight frequencies at only 40% of the pre-Covid level.

Mr Al Mutawa said the most important cause for concern regarding Thai tourism this year is the government's border protocols, followed by vaccine programmes in the country as well as the overall viral situation globally.

As the government is preparing to declare Covid endemic in July, which will enable travel regulations to be lifted, he said there is always demand to Thailand, particularly in terms of tourists from Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the US who normally travel during the school break in July.

Meanwhile, the current Russia-Ukraine conflict poses a short-term impact on Emirates' airfares, which increased by 2-3% globally due to the surge in oil prices.

Mr Al Mutawa said the crisis might cause some hiccups to travel sentiment as it has been proven that even the pandemic cannot stop people from travelling globally.

Recently, Emirates signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) with the Tourism Authority of Thailand in order to help support Thai tourism via jointly marketing and promotional campaigns.

He said the MoC will help attract more international tourists to Thailand and also support cargo businesses by promoting the country, benefiting from its global network of 128 destinations globally.