Thai Air says passengers cancelling due to unrest

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Airways International said on Tuesday that passengers, particularly from other Asian countries, were cancelling flights because of political unrest.

"Passengers have cancelled their flights. Our flight bookings have fallen by more than 10 percent in the past one or two days," President Apinan Sumanaseni told Reuters.

The flight cancellations mostly involved tourists from Japan, South Korea and China after various governments issued travel warnings, he said.

The airline would cut costs to help shore up its earnings for the year, he said. Thai Airways posted a net loss of 7.04 billion baht (115 million pounds) for the first half of 2008 due to surging jet fuel costs and a huge foreign exchange loss.

Its shares hit a record low of 13.3 baht in early trade on Tuesday as the political unrest and emergency rule imposed by the government raised fears about tourist arrivals.

The shares have fallen 10.4 percent since Friday, when anti-government protests forced the airport in Phuket, a major tourist destination in the south, to close. A few other airports were affected but all have since reopened.

However, at the midday break, the shares were up 0.73 percent at 13.8 baht while the main stock market index was down 1.81 percent.

(Reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Writing by Viparat Jantraprap; Editing by Alan Raybould)