UPDATE 1-Thai Airways to cut flights to Asian countries

BANGKOK, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Thai Airways International THAI.BK said on Wednesday it would cut flights to Asian countries from next week due to a fall in passenger numbers because of political unrest in Thailand and the global financial crisis.

The airline would also delay remaining investment under a 3 billion baht ($87 million) plan covering the second half of this year, President Apinan Sumanaseni told reporters.

"The global financial crisis has caused passenger numbers to fall below our target. In this period, cabin factors normally are around 70-80 percent, but currently it is only 50-60 percent," Apinan said, referring to the percentage of seats sold.

The airline is cutting flights to China, India, South Korea and Japan from next week and would review plans later this month, the airline chief said.

Apinan said passengers from those countries had dropped by 10 percent since early September, when several states issued travel warnings after the Thai government imposed emergency rule in Bangkok because of political unrest.

After a period of calm, violence flared up again on Tuesday. Two people died and over 400 were injured in clashes between police and anti-government protesters. [nBKK67010]

"It is hard to give a projection on whether we will have a loss or profit for this year as a decline in world oil prices helped reduce fuel costs, but the global economic slowdown might hit tourism," Apinan said.

The airline, which had expected a net loss in the third quarter of this year, still hoped to report a net profit in the fourth quarter when it was the high season for the airline industry, he added.

It made a net loss of 7.04 billion baht in the first six months, due in part to a foreign exchange loss.

The airline has said it expected revenue to drop this year from the 174 billion baht it earned last year due to the political situation.

Eight analysts polled by Reuters Estimates expected a 2008 net loss of 9.6 billion baht, against a net profit of 1.83 billion baht in 2007.

Thai Air shares fell 3.77 percent to 10.20 baht on Wednesday, but that was better than the overall market, which fell 6.88 percent. ($1=33.50 Baht) (Reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Writing by Arada Therdthammakun; Editing by Alan Raybould)