New Airline In Thailand...

[Greg_B 306]

Nok Air, the low-cost airline backed by Thai Airways International which took over six months to hatch, is ready to venture from its nest in 11 days into the crowded and competitive local skies.

 

Nok, bird in Thai, will be the third local entrant in the budget field after One-Two-Go, an affiliate of Orient Thai Airlines, and Thai AirAsia, a joint venture of Malaysia's AirAsia and Shin Corp, the conglomerate controlled by the family of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

 

Nok will begin flights on July 20 between Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Udon Thani and Hat Yai.

 

The airline had been scheduled to debut on June 1, and some observers speculated that it was delayed to help players with political pull gain a greater foothold in the budget airline sector.

 

But Patee Sarasin, chief executive of SkyAsia, the company that runs Nok, yesterday scoffed at the claims. He said that the regulatory process had taken longer than anticipated.

 

"We have made sure that everything that was needed to be done before we start flying was done 100% correctly according to all international regulations and safety standards," he said.

 

It took Thai AirAsia only a few months from inception to take off and to start expanding into neighbouring countries.

 

Nok will use 149-seat Boeing 737-400s bearing a cartoonish yellow bird beak. The planes, leased from Thai Airways, will be introduced on July 15 in a ceremony presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

 

The airline expects seats to be used to full capacity on five round-trip flights per day to Chiang Mai, three to Udon Thani and two to Hat Yai. The three routes are also hotly contested by Thai Airways, Thai AirAsia and One-Two-Go.

 

Mr Patee maintains there is still room for more capacity on the routes. "There is demand for an additional carrier like ours. Furthermore, each airline offers its own selling point," he said.

 

However, he said THAI, which owns 39% of Nok, might surrender some of its domestic routes to Nok in the future.

 

Nok will use a five-tier pricing system, with early birds getting the cheapest fares. The lowest one-way fare to Chiang Mai will be 598 baht excluding insurance and taxes, and the highest 1,700 baht.

 

Toward the last quarter of this year, Nok will add another Boeing 737-400, leased from THAI, to support expansion to destinations including Phuket, Ubon Ratchathani, Krabi and Phitsanulok. Next year, it plans to start flying to Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

 

A first-year loss of about 18 million baht is projected. But Nok is expected to post a net profit of 252 million baht in the second year of operation and 693 million in the third year, according to a SkyAsia projection.

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bangkok Post July 8, 2004