arriving for the "phuket sandbox"

Currently, skyscanner.com lists 63 countries that have "low restrictions" for Americans, basically no quarantine or testing, only screening. These include Mexico, all of central America (ex. Costa Rica, Panama, etc.) most of South America (Brazil, Columbia, Peru, etc.) and the Caribbean (Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico). In addition to the lack of restrictions, these places are all relatively close, resulting in shorter, less expensive flights when compared to flying halfway around the world to Asia. I assume the situation is similar for most other developed nations. So, why the heck would travelers bother even thinking about going to Thailand?

Actually, I have a couple of friends who have lived in Southeast Asia and would love to come back. There are also people here in Vietnam that would like to be able to travel (or move) to Thailand, Of course, they're still waiting for some sign of opening a year and a half later instead of "Someday got the virus! Cancel all international flights! Seal the borders! Close the bars and restaurants! Ban alcohol!"

Mid-month, my preferred way of monitoring the vaccination progress.

At 1st June - Daily vaccinations required to achieve 31st Dec target - 450,164
At 15th June - Average vaccinations given 7th -15th June - 284. 973 ( 61% of target )
At 15th June - Daily vaccinations now required to achieve 31st Dec target - 468,157

No. of Days required daily target achieved so far - 1
No of Days overrun based on actual average achieved 7th-15th June - 128 ( May 8th 2022 )

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Transp ... 1&si=44594

Thai Airways clears legal hurdles to launch rehab plan
Bankruptcy court approves restructuring of cash-strapped flag carrier


The approved rehabilitation plan is designed to tackle Thai Airways' unprofitable businesses. © Reuters
MASAYUKI YUDA, Nikkei staff writerJune 15, 2021 21:47 JST

BANGKOK -- A Thai court formally approved Thai Airways International's rehabilitation plan on Tuesday, clearing all legal hurdles to set the plan in motion.

"The Central Bankruptcy Court granted an order to approve Thai Airways International's business rehabilitation plan," the airline said in a statement. "The plan administrators and all employees are committed to performing their duties for a successful implementation of the plan and for the utmost benefit of all creditors."

In an online news conference held after the verdict was read, acting CEO Chansin Treenuchagron said that the company's ongoing restructuring efforts helped to "reduce almost 50% of expense related to workforce and remuneration packages. We were able to bring our cost down to lower than the industry standard. We will be able to compete in the next three to five years."

The airline only recorded annual profits twice in the past decade, and the rehabilitation program mainly deals with its unprofitable businesses. The plan consists of an organizational shake-up that will halve the airline's pre-COVID workforce and cut executive positions by 30%. The company has also been selling off jetliners, facilities and stockholdings as part of a review of its asset portfolio, and to raise working capital.

Some experts, though, say the plan is insufficient to repair Thai Airways' damaged balance sheet. The airline needs a major cleanup, including new funds to tide itself over during the five-to-seven-year rehabilitation. Creditors have been reluctant to grant large write-offs as part of the rehabilitation process due to the company's past mismanagement.


Uncertainties loom for Thai Airways, including how fast the world will recover from the pandemic and how travelers will behave in the post-COVID era. © Reuters

Thai Airways got the nod for the plan from 28 out of 38 creditors at a meeting on May 19. The debt held by those creditors accounted for 91.56% of Thai Airways' total debt, well above the 50% required to proceed with the plan.

Winning creditors' backing was key; the court's approval was a formality by comparison. Nevertheless, it was a necessary legal step to implement the restructuring. The airline has been under court-supervised rehabilitation since September 2020. Then the COVID-19 pandemic brought a halt to international travel, dealing a further blow to the already floundering flag carrier.

The court approval gives Thai Airways a six-year extension on debenture redemptions. Three-year repayment concessions have also been negotiated with commercial banks. The airline reportedly offered creditors the right to convert debt to equity after the seventh year of rehabilitation.

Thai Airways Chief Financial Officer Chai Eamsiri said, "The plan is to ask for 25 billion baht from the government and another 25 billion baht from private institutions." However, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha had said in May that the state would not get involved in the rehabilitation.

As part of the rehabilitation, the government stripped the flag carrier of its state enterprise status by reducing its shareholding below 50%, having determined that strong job protections for state company employees would impede the restructuring. In the past, the airline often counted on government assistance after management missteps.

"We want the funding as soon as possible, as our revenue is still not at the normal level and we have a limited time," said Chai. "At present, we won't be able to last until the end of the year with our current cash flow."

But outside observers are also concerned about uncertainty in the air travel business.

The rehabilitation plan aims to bring the airline back to stable profitability by 2025. Meeting that target depends on both smooth execution of the rehabilitation and a recovery of the air travel market by 2024. But it is unclear how quickly the world will bounce back from the pandemic and how travelers will behave in the post-COVID era.

Thailand plans to accept vaccinated international visitors to Phuket island without quarantines, starting July 1. The "sandbox experiment" is an effort to revive Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, whose tourism and related industries accounted for 20% of gross domestic product in pre-COVID times.

Thai Airways will take part in the experiment by welcoming vacationers from five European cities. Flights to Phuket from Paris, Copenhagen, and Frankfurt, Germany, will begin July 2. Routes from London and Zurich will resume the next day. The test's success will bring the airline closer to achieving its recovery target, while failure to attract visitors will add to the uncertainty over its future.

"We will execute our plan," said CEO Chansin, "and then in three or six months, we will update you with our progress."

ExPenhMan wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 4:13 pm When you think it couldn't get any worse in Thailand . . . Holy shit! All other expressions fail me now that I know there was a complete data exposure for the vaccine registration web site.

Blogger Richard Barrow just discovered that everyone'e private data on the thailandintervac.com website was viewable to anyone else, by clicking Edit. The site has been disconnected. Some smarties are saying the entire registration database was exposed, all your registration data, birthdate, phone number, address, etc etc.

https://twitter.com/RichardBarrow/statu ... 41888?s=20

Monumental foreigners' private data exposure Part 2: Thailand, Land of Data Breaches.

Bangkok Immigration's online booking system has been found to be exposing everyone's data, maybe for years.

Again, it was reported by blogger Richard Barrow on Twitter about two hours ago. Apparently, Thailand bad boy Andrew MacGregor Marshall caught the data breach of the vaccine booking app first.

joke of the day

I guess he did not see this graph
got a ways to go:

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Jun 16, 2021 6:45 pm joke of the day

Prayut can go fuck himself!

https://prachatai.com/english/node/9298

ByPrachatai

Reports of VIPs jumping the Covid-19 vaccine queue



Submitted on Wed, 16 Jun 2021 - 12:00 PM

As vaccinations around the country lag behind targets, questions are being asked about queue-jumping in Nakhon Ratchasima, Bangkok and Samut Prakan.


A list showing 31 names of those alleged to be the VIPs who received the vaccination at Suranaree University of Technology Hospital. 2 names in the square hold an army and a police title.

On 14 June, a source told Prachatai that a group of about 30 people received their first Sinovac vaccination at Suranaree University of Technology Hospital (SUTH) on 21 May, a day when scarce vaccines were provided only to university staff.

The source also said the group were from neither the university nor hospital. Some had well-known surnames of families closely connected with the board members of the hospital and politicians in the governing Palang Pracharat Party, 6 of whose MPs were elected from the province. Some have the rank of general and police major colonel.

SUTH Director Dr Niwatchai Namvichaisirikul responded to the allegations, insisting that there has been no VIP jabs. The hospital had just started a public vaccination campaign along with other hospitals on 7 June, following Ministry of Public Health policy, using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

When asked if SUTH had conducted public vaccinations before 7 June using the Sinovac vaccine, Niwatchai said SUTH followed the public vaccination programme of Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital which had been operating for almost 2 months. Due to the scarce quantities distributed, SUTH at that time vaccinated only those who are either at risk of infection or hospital workers.

“We received quite a small vaccine allocation. We did not open for the general public to come and be vaccinated all the time. We opened on the day when we had the vaccines that we were allocated,” said Niwatchai.

A Public Relations officer from Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital informed Prachatai that the hospital had carried out public vaccinations on 19 May at Central Plaza Nakhon Ratchasima. Prior to that date, only hospital staff were given the vaccine. The hospital also did not give vaccines to patients at the field hospital.

VIPs ahead in the delayed rollout
The VIP issue is just one of the problems that have emerged out of the current vaccine scarcity. As of 15 June, 6,511,184 people had received at least one dose, about 10 percent of the population. On 7 June, the government started its plan to have 70 percent of the population, about 50 million people, injected by the end of the year in order to create herd immunity.

Due to a lack of vaccines and delayed deliveries, the vaccination campaign was postponed in many places.

On 9 June, Khaosod Online reported that people who were waiting in line for vaccinations at Bang Pu Subdistrict, Samut Prakan Province, saw a group of people jumping the queue and receiving the vaccine before them. The crowd responded in anger, some by sarcastic clapping.

Charin Chanthaphan, Director of Bang Pu Mai Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospital, announced that those who jumped the queue were from agencies who came for vaccinations before returning to their duties. He avoided answering who these groups of people were.

On 8 June, Matichon Online reported that a group of people disguised themselves as motorcycle taxi riders in order to receive the vaccine at Bang Sue Central Train Station. An investigation later found that these people were family members or associates of the riders.

Chalerm Changthongmadun, President of the Motorcycle Taxi Drivers Association of Thailand, testified that the incident was a misunderstanding by the riders who thought that they could bring along their families to receive the vaccination due to the risk of infection from living with the riders.

A column published in the Manager Online on 9 June revealed a secret rungrueang (prosperity) code used by people of high status to receive a vaccination without prior registration at Srithanya Hospital in Bangkok.

So far, only Sinovac and AstraZeneca have been used in vaccinations in Thailand. The Chulabhorn Royal Academy has scheduled vaccinations with the Sinopharm vaccine to begin on 25 June, with almost 7,000 organizations registered on 14 June, the first day of registration. Any future imports of the Moderna, Pfizer and J&J vaccines will go through the Government Pharmaceutical Organization.