Thai Airways to resume normal flight schedules from Saturday

Thai Airways International (Thai) is set to return to its normal flight operation mode on Saturday, according to the airline. The decision comes after severe floods in greater Bangkok severely impacted the carrier, forcing the cancellation of numerous services and stranding passengers and their luggage. Thai announced on Thursday night that it would resume full operations starting from Saturday, after reducing the number of cancelled flights from almost 40 during the peak of the flooding to 15 on Thursday and nine on Friday.

The airline had to scale down ground and air services due to insufficient staff, resulting in chaos as passengers were left stranded at Suvarnabhumi International Airport and around 10,000 pieces of luggage and cargo accumulated at the airport due to staff shortages. The airline's crisis arose just two weeks after it climbed up the Skytrax global rankings, with its airport services category rising from 11th to 7th place.

The government and passengers criticized the carrier for failing to cope with the crisis, failing to keep the service afloat or minimize its impacts. Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn stated on Thursday that the airline had cleared stranded passengers and planned to return baggage to all passengers by Saturday night.