The signage going up nationwide is clear and unequivocal: No Tips.

By this he means no more back-handers to corrupt immigration officials or the agents who collect the tea money from tourists and either pass it on or keep it for themselves.

Pictures posted on the Immigration Facebook page showed a permanent sign at an airport that said: No Tips please. The message was also in a graphic with Royal Thai Police insignia behind and “The Immigration Bureau” at the bottom.

It was also in Thai and Chinese.

Another stuck on a window at an immigration office clearly stated in English that visa fees were just Bt2,000 – no more.

At Sadao on the Thailand-Malaysia border, a printed sign on a counter said “No Tip” while an accompanying sign said “No other fees charged in passing this border”.

Surachate started his job as immigration commissioner on Monday after his move from deputy chief of the Thai Tourist Police Bureau where he was involved in many highly publicised crime busts.

One of his first statements as he moved to his Immigration desk was to announce an end to the practice of border officials taking bribes of Bt300.

Local media was saying that the practice had become the norm, with agents charging tourists Bt2,300 for their visas.

It was reported that sometimes the fees were kept by the agents themselves but other times they were passed on.

Thus, even honest officials felt they were being tarred with the brush of being corrupt.

Surachate also vowed to go after all agents and their customers nationwide involved in procuring visa extensions with fake documents.

He was speaking at a press conference on Wednesday over the arrest of Yupin Jantakhat, 55, who was acting as a visa extension agent. She has been charged with falsifying tax documents for the purpose of seeking visa extensions for her clients.

Two Nigerians, who were not named, presented the false papers at the government immigration offices in Chaeng Wattana.

Local media reported that Yupin was handling visas mostly for Indians, Pakistanis and Nigerians.

Yupin was arrested in Soi Dan Samrong, North Samrong after the paper trail led to her residence there.

“I am very happy to bring more great news, not long after we introduced Lufthansa’s flagship Airbus A380 to the market. With the right aircraft and growing demand for flights in Thailand, adding the Bangkok to Munich service complements our existing Lufthansa Group schedules out of Thailand. We are now able to offer our customers more flights to Europe via our five-star Munich hub and thereby strengthen the connection between the two vibrant cities,” said Stefan Molnar, regional sales manager.

The Airbus A350 – 900 will service the route, featuring 48 seats in business class, 21 in premium economy and 224 in economy class, the modern aircraft consumes 25 per cent less fuel, produces 25 per cent fewer emissions and 50 per cent less noise. Lufthansa is also the first airline to use a range of different lighting settings to match the day-to-night biorhythms of its passengers.

The Thailand-based airline achieved on-time performance (OTP) of 94.68 per cent for its flights which arrived and departed from Narita International Airport in its first three-months of operating on the route.

The record, regarded as “excellent” by the aviation industry, made NokScoot one of the top carriers serving Narita, the international gateway to Japan.

“The robust OTP record we achieved so far at Narita is testimony of our endeavour to make our flights on time with no sacrifice in the safety or convenience of passengers,” said NokScoot CEO Yodchai Sudhidhanakul.

NokScoot, nicknamed Big Bird, started a daily flight from Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport to Narita on June 1, with Boeing 777-200 wide-body jets, configured with 415 seats.

The industry defines OTP as flights that arrive or depart under 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival/departure times.

NokScoot’s OTP in the first eight months of this year showed an average of 79.89 per cent, relatively high by industry standards, for a total of 2,521 flights.

 He added that the firm selected was only applicant meeting the department’s criteria for providing service in a transparent process.

Counter Service Co Ltd will conduct a six-month trial of the service, October 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019. After which , the department will decide on the issinace of a licence.

VAT refund is capped Bt12,000 per person per trip, he said.

The pace of growth was unchanged from the previous month, but was less than half the five-year average growth rate of 5.1 per cent, IATA said.

Freight capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometres, grew by 4.5 per cent year on year in August.

This was the sixth month in a row that capacity growth had outstripped demand growth. Yields, however, appeared to be holding up, IATA said.