Star Alliance founding member Thai Airways International (THAI) will resume the Bangkok-Sapporo route on 2 August with five-weekly Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flights.
For now, the schedule has only been confirmed through 28 October, THAI notes.
The outbound TG670 Bangkok-Sapporo flights will depart on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 2345, arriving in Sapporo the following morning at 0830.
The inbound TG671 Sapporo-Bangkok flights will depart the Japanese city every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 1000, touching back down at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport at 1500 same day.
This will be THAI’s sixth route to Japan, complementing Bangkok-Tokyo (Narita), Bangkok-Tokyo (Haneda), Bangkok-Nagoya, Bangkok-Osaka and Bangkok-Fukuoka.
THAI only has two 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft in its current fleet, both were delivered in late 2017.
The THAI 787-9s feature 30 ‘Royal Silk’ business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, as well as 268 economy class seats in a 3-3-3 configuration.
Many Asia-Pacific carriers are returning to Sapporo this year, although some with smaller aircraft and reduced frequency compared to pre-Covid.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific will fly to Sapporo five times a week this winter schedule, deploying various aircraft types, including its Airbus A350-900 fleet. Hong Kong Airlines will fly three times a week with A330s.
From Taiwan, new premium carrier Starlux Airlines has added Sapporo to its network. The airline will fly to Sapporo daily with A321 neo aircraft, competing with China Airlines and EVA Air, which operate 777-300ER and A330 aircraft to Hokkaido.
