Thai Airways flies its full schedule again today. The 5,600 bags are the part still missing.
Thai Airways is operating its full Bangkok schedule again today. Its board sacked the chief executive the day before that happened.
Chai Eamsiri was removed on Friday 2 October at a special board meeting chaired by Finance Permanent Secretary Lavaron Sangsnit. Thai PBS World and Khaosod English both reported it, and board director Samrit Samniang takes over as acting chief executive. Chai told Skift he was pushed out over the flood chaos. The airline had already told passengers it would fly everything on its schedule from Saturday 3 October, which is today, after cancelling 59 flights in five days and leaving roughly 5,600 checked bags on the ground at Suvarnabhumi.
The airport stayed open. The staff could not get to it.
Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang never shut. Bangkok's flooding on 26 and 27 September did something less visible and more expensive than closing a runway. Khaosod English reported water more than a metre deep across the eastern suburbs where a large share of the airline's ground staff live, and the transport Thai Airways laid on could not get them through it.
Nation Thailand put a number on the gap that mattered. The airline had 20 licensed load masters available against the 45 it needed. A load master signs off on how an aircraft is loaded and balanced. Without one the bags stay on the tarmac, and the aeroplane leaves anyway.
So it did. Baggage from 52 flights flown on 26 and 27 September was still undelivered on the 29th. Thirty-four flights ran late on the 28th. Passengers described five and six hour waits at the belt, and some flew out of Thailand while their suitcases stayed behind. Three carousels were turned into sorting floors. By the time the airline had finished asking for help, 123 Royal Thai Air Force personnel, army units with forklifts and Thailand Post vans were shifting luggage around a working international airport.
The flight cuts were the airline buying itself room. It pulled 30 to 40 per cent of its Bangkok departures, including 15 flights on Thursday 1 October and 9 on Friday the 2nd, part of 59 cancellations since 26 September. More than a thousand transit passengers were stuck at one point on 30 September, and the airport cleared the last of them at about 1am on 1 October. Cargo intake was suspended for seven days from the 30th. In-flight catering went down too.
Why this is an Indian problem and not only a Thai one
Thai Airways serves eight Indian cities from Bangkok: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Gaya. The 29 September cancellation list included the Delhi rotation, TG315 and TG316, and Bengaluru.
India is Thailand's third largest source market. Official arrivals data reported by Nation Thailand counts 1,536,770 Indians between January and August 2026, behind China on 3.54 million and Malaysia on 2.66 million, and almost exactly flat year on year while total arrivals fell 3.08 per cent. October and November are when Indian bookings peak.
One qualifier. TTG Asia reported that other airlines at Suvarnabhumi saw little disruption, which reads like somebody else's problem if you fly IndiGo or Air India. It is not quite. Thai Airways is also a ground handler for other carriers at that airport, and it asked Airports of Thailand to hand some of that work to competing handlers while it dug itself out. If you flew a different airline out of Bangkok last week and your bag did not, that is the likeliest reason.
What a missing bag is actually worth
India acceded to the Montreal Convention in 2009 and Thailand in 2017, so a Delhi to Bangkok ticket is covered at both ends, and so is the Indian leg of a connection through Bangkok.
ICAO raised the limits on 28 December 2024. Airline liability for baggage destroyed, lost, damaged or delayed went from 1,288 to 1,519 Special Drawing Rights. At the IMF's rate of 130.162 rupees to the SDR on 1 October 2026, that is about ₹1.98 lakh per passenger. The separate cap for delay to the passenger rather than the bag went to 6,303 SDR, roughly ₹8.2 lakh.
These are ceilings, not payouts. The airline owes you what you can prove you lost, up to the limit. Nobody hands you two lakh for a missing suitcase.
The deadlines are short and they are the part people miss. A written complaint within 7 days for damage, within 21 days for delay, counted from the day the bag was handed back to you. Two years to bring an action. File a Property Irregularity Report before you leave the airport, then send a dated email inside the window even if you have not finished adding up what it cost you.
What to do about it this week
If you hold a Thai Airways ticket issued on or before 29 September for a Bangkok flight between 26 September and 11 October, Nation Thailand reports three options. Move the date on the same route, with the change fee and the no-show fee waived. Change the route, with the change fee waived but any fare difference payable. Or take a full refund if your flight was cancelled or delayed by more than three hours, processed under Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand rules. Go through the airline's flight disruption form, or your agent if you booked through one.
If your bag is still out, register a delivery address through the QR code instead of standing at the terminal. Three couriers including Thailand Post are running bags to addresses. Lost and found at Suvarnabhumi is on 02 134 5453, 5454 and 5455, and the contact centre is +66 2 356 1111. The airline is opening its ticket office on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road in Bangkok from 8am to 5pm on 3 and 4 October for anyone who would rather turn up in person.
Then the unglamorous advice. Fly through Bangkok with cabin baggage only for the next fortnight if your trip allows it. Medication, chargers, documents and one change of clothes go in the bag that stays with you regardless. Arrive three hours before an international departure, which the airport has been asking for since 26 September. Keep every receipt for what you had to replace, because the receipts are the claim.
A day in Bangkok you did not plan for
A delayed bag usually costs you a day. You cannot leave the city, you are waiting on a courier, and whatever you booked for that afternoon assumed you had your things. These are what survive that kind of day, because they are cheap enough not to sting and close enough to walk away from halfway through.
The Chao Phraya hop-on hop-off boat at ₹369 is the best value transport in Bangkok and doubles as the sightseeing, so nothing is wasted if your phone rings and you have to go back to the hotel. The SEA LIFE and Madame Tussauds combo at ₹352 sits in the basement of Siam Paragon, which matters in October because it rains and because you can be back at your room in twenty minutes. The Oasis Spa at ₹3,197 is what I would book after a night spent at a baggage belt, and Sukhumvit 31 is the quieter of its branches.
Ayutthaya at ₹2,429 is the better day out and the wrong one this week. It is a full day up the river and back, and you cannot meet a courier from a ruined temple complex an hour and a half north of the city. Book it once your bag is in your room.
What nobody has answered yet
How many bags are still out. Airports of Thailand said it wanted everything moved by Saturday night with a final clearance on Sunday 4 October and only a small residue expected. That is a target. The same airline promised a 72-hour clearance on 29 September and was still cancelling flights on 2 October.
Whether a full schedule holds. What broke was a staffing number rather than a weather event, and an acting chief executive does not license 25 load masters in a week. Thailand's rainy season runs into November.
What anyone gets beyond a refund. Nothing has been announced past the standard rebooking and refund terms, and the Montreal limits are something you claim rather than something you are offered.
The flights are back today and the airline is not fixed. If you are flying Thai Airways through Bangkok in the next fortnight, the schedule is probably fine and your checked bag is the part to plan around.
Reporting from Khaosod English on 29 September and 2 October, Nation Thailand on 29 and 30 September and 2 October, TTG Asia on 29 September and 2 October, Thai PBS World on 2 October, the Thaiger on 2 and 3 October, Malay Mail on 30 September and Skift on 2 October. Operational notices, route list and flight disruption terms from thaiairways.com. Arrival figures are the official Thai numbers for January to August 2026 as reported by Nation Thailand. Liability limits from ICAO's notice of the revision effective 28 December 2024, converted at the IMF's rate of 130.162 rupees to the SDR on 1 October 2026. Complaint deadlines are Article 31 of the Montreal Convention. All read on 3 October 2026. Prices, phone numbers and targets move, so check yours on the day.