"Betong"

Commercial flights to Yala’s new Betong airport began taking off on Friday as Nok Air joined efforts to promote tourism in the South.

The Betong Tourism Business Association is seeking help from the Tourism Authority of Thailand to subsidise air fare so that Nok Air could resume its flights to and from Betong International Airport in Yala province.

The Department of Airports issued an announcement on Wednesday stating that its recent order to transfer the acting director of Betong International Airport to an inactive post at the Airports Standard Control Division had nothing to do with Nok Air’s cancellation of flights to the southern airport.

The Department of Airports has sacked the acting director of Betong International Airport not long after it had received the prime minister on the first commercial flight.

Betong tourism operators will offer discounts on hotel rooms and food when travellers show their boarding pass, in a bid to kickstart Thailand’s newest airport.

Betong tourism operators are unhappy with Nok Air’s cancellation of flights to the new Betong International Airport, adding that the government must learn from this “expensive lesson”.

Nok Air executives met the Senate’s Transport Committee on Thursday to explain why the airline cancelled flights to Yala’s new Betong International Airport just one day after inauguration.

Nok Air cancelled flights from Yala’s Betong International Airport just a day after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his Cabinet flew into the airport with much fanfare on Monday on the first commercial flight.

The government will transform Betong into a model city for tourism and cross-border trading in the South, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha said after he opened Betong International Airport in Yala province on Monday.

Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha will take the first commercial flight from Bangkok’s Don Mueang to Betong Airport in Yala province on March 14, inaugurating commercial operations at Thailand’s newest airport.

At least 75 per cent of people in the Betong district of Yala province have had two doses of vaccination, and more than 70 per cent of the workplace is safe and meets health standards with SHA+/ TSC/ Covid-free setting, the Betong district authority said.

Yala’s Betong Airport opening has been delayed because the third wave of Covid-19 infections has affected the licence approval process, Department of Airports director-general Apirat Chaiwongnoi said on Thursday.