Thai Airways resumes daily Perth-Bangkok flights
The Star Alliance airline is finally soaring back to Western Australia.
By Staff Writers, April 2 2024
Nature is returning to Perth Airport. And by nature, we mean yet another international carrier. This time, it’s Thai Airways, which is now once again flying daily between the West Australian capital and its hub city of Bangkok.
This makes it the only direct flight on the Bangkok-Perth route, with all other carriers – Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Malindo Air, Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia et al – requiring a stopover at their respective hubs.
Perth Airport’s Chief Commercial and Aviation Officer Kate Holsgrove hails the airline’s return, while adding that securing non-stop flights to other international destinations “continues to be a priority” for the airport.
The seven hour jaunt to Bangkok is made on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner fitted with 22 flatbed seats in Thai’s Royal Silk business class, laid out in a dated 2-2-2 configuration rather than the more modern 1-2-1 plan; behind the business class cabin are 234 economy seats.
Thai Airway's 2-2-2 business class.
Instead of a fixed schedule across all seven days, Thai Airways is flying as follows every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday:
- TG481 departs Bangkok at 7.20am to reach Perth at 3.05pm
- TG482 is wheels-up from Perth at 4.20pm, arriving into Bangkok at 10.20pm
And on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as below:
- TG483 from Bangkok lifts off just after midnight at 12:01am, arriving at 7:45am local time in Perth
- TG484 jets out of Perth at 9:20am, landing in Bangkok at 3:20pm
Prior to the departure of Thai’s Perth-Bangkok flight, business class passengers plus those holding Star Alliance Gold status (including Thai Royal Orchid Plus Gold) have access to the Air New Zealand or Singapore Airlines lounges, depending on the flight schedule.
Also read: Here’s your 2024 fast track to Star Alliance Gold status
The WA capital is certainly enjoying a post-pandemic travel rebound, with South African Airways restarting flights to Johannesburg from April 28 and Qantas launching Sydney-Perth-Paris flights in July 2024.
Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines has taken over the former Qantas lounge at Perth Airport’s T1 international terminal to open an all-new SilverKris Lounge delivering more space, improved dining and generally upscale facilities for lounge-worthy passengers on SQ and its sibling Star Alliance airlines.
In addition, Thai Airways added a second daily departure from Sydney on April 1, with the complementary flight well-timed for connections to Europe and Japan.
31 May 2013
Total posts 29
Be interesting to see how this goes with Jetstar starting flights PER-Bangkok next year also.
10 May 2020
Total posts 5
"wheels-up"... you do realise that the departure time is push-back time, right?
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
Hi dkd – indeed we do realise that push-back time is officially the mark of departure time, but I hope that in return you'll realise and appreciate that Executive Traveller is not an aviation blog, and that we write for a very large and more mainstream audience and so we choose and use language to suit.
That language can be more dynamic, appealing and engaging, as well as skirting some industry terminology (hence why we apply 'direct' and 'non-stop' equally when they are technically albeit confusingly different) and avoiding other terms entirely (hence why you rarely see IATA airport or airline abbreviations along with some other abbreviations common in hardcore frequent flyer circles).
And it's in that same vein that we use 'wheels-up' rather than 'push-back': it's a bit less avgeek, a bit more obvious and a bit more engaging for the 'average' reader.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 775
Sssmokin' !! Keepin' it simple for me, thank-you Ed. :-)
Cathay Pacific - The Marco Polo Club
19 Apr 2014
Total posts 50
In a recent press release TG also mentioned the possibility of double daily to sydney...is that still on the cards?
Would be nice to have another SEA operator to fly 1 stop to europe.
09 Jun 2017
Total posts 30
Great news for Perth and Thai. I just wish Virgin would join Star Alliance to make it more attractive.
David, please continue to use "wheels up" as it adds a touch of flair to your articles.
Whatever the official time of departure is to some of the readers here, many could argue in several directions. Pushback in my experience, NEVER guarantees an on time departure. On a windy day in Melbourne with 1 runway in operation, a flight can spend sometimes an hour in taxi with multiple landings and take offs backing up. It's also interesting that Flightradar24 doesn't add flight information such as arrival time until "wheels up" has been achieved.
19 Jun 2012
Total posts 30
While this will be the only direct Perth-Bangkok service at launch, it's probably worth mentioning that Jetstar will also operate the route from September.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2013
Total posts 144
For people who are much more aviation smarter than i'm, would BNE be lower than PER when it comes to economics of filling up an aircraft? Both TG and MH have stopped flying into BNE, but it looks like PER is getting a lot of love recently.
20 Nov 2015
Total posts 483
Brisbane might have a larger population in itself plus the additional draw from areas like the Gold Coast and even Cairns, but it also comes down to how much money or 'wealth' is floating around, and Perth could have the edge there, as well as where the airline's 'home country' audience are, and Perth could also have a higher percentage of Thais and Malaysians, plus you can also have state governments spending money to bring airlines in by subsiding their flights and costs through 'investment funds' and tourism promotion, so if Perth & WA are offering more money than Brisbane & QLD that would also tilt the scales in their favour.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Nov 2017
Total posts 351
Also traditionally TG and MH have struggled in BNE when compared with the SQ juggernaut in the Queensland market.
AirAsiaX Thailand had a brief BNE-DMK route which struggled to work despite the Tourism funding/incentives whilst at the same time TG drew back BNE to 4x weekly pre-COVID.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
24 Feb 2015
Total posts 4
With Thailand crying out for tourists, TG has hardly been supportive with the very limited service down under to Australia and NZ. BNE and AKL need to be added and frequencies to SYD and MEL increased.
03 May 2021
Total posts 55
Considering Thai nearly went bankrupt during COVID. They are going to want to be cautious. And it wouldn’t be smart of them to open up unprofitable routes.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Oct 2012
Total posts 45
Thai is filling that gap left by the decision by Qantas to exit direct routes into BKK. And Jetstar isnt a like for like comparison.
09 Jun 2021
Total posts 1
What chance of TG going DIRECT Perth - Phuket in the future, That was a great flight and always 90% plus full every flight. I stopped using TG going Per - Bangkok as to long 11hr campared to Per - Sing - Phu at 9hr with sing air.
Cathay Pacific - The Marco Polo Club
20 Jun 2013
Total posts 63
Great to have Thai back in PER.
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