Thailand: Interprovincial bus service resumes from Sept 1 - services up again after one-month suspension; air travel also up and running

Photo courtesy of The Nation Thailand/ANN

BANGKOK, Aug 29 (The Nation Thailand/ANN): The Transport Company has announced the resumption of interprovincial bus services, starting September 1, after being suspended for nearly a month.

A total of 26 routes in the North, Northeast, East and South regions will resume service, with 75 per cent of passenger capacity per trip to comply with Covid-19 control measures.

On Saturday, Transport Co president Sanyalux Panwattanalikit announced the relaxation in restrictions announced by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) to resume interprovincial travel in "dark red", or very high risk provinces. However, passengers in public transport will not exceed 75 per cent of capacity.

The service will resume on September 1, with eight northern routes, 10 routes to the Northeast and East, and eight routes to the South.

Tickets can be booked in advance through https://tcl99web.transport.co.th/Home, at 7-Eleven service counters or with the Transport Co ticket dealers. Passengers can pay the ticket through “Pao Tang” mobile application under the Half-Half Co-Payment scheme.

The Transport Co 1490 call centre is available 24 hours a day to provide more information.

Thailand will allow some domestic flights to and from Bangkok and other high risk areas for Covid-19 to resume also from Sept 1, the country's aviation authority said Sunday, to help boost economic activity.

The announcement follows the easing of tough restrictions in 29 high-risk provinces from next month, including allowing more provincial travel and the reopening of shopping malls, as the government tries to revive a struggling economy hit by the outbreak.

Local fights can fly at up to 75% capacity and passengers will have to follow travel conditions at destinations such as presenting proof of vaccinations and Covid-19 testing results, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) said in a statement.

Flights related to areas under a tourism reopening scheme will also be allowed, it said.

Airlines, including Asia Aviation and Bangkok Airways, have announced the resumption of some local flights from next week.

The relaxed curbs come as Thailand's biggest wave of infections shows some signs of easing after a daily record high of more than 23,000 new cases earlier this month amid an outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant.