News
Nok Air readies for China launch
July 22nd 2016
“It is perfect timing to go to China,” Nok Air CEO, Patee Sarasin, told AIN this week. “The country is opening up, but it has restricted certain Thai airlines from going in. For now, the market isn’t saturated.” Read More »
Nok Air plans to launch a three times a week Don Mueang-Kunming services in November, followed by a new route to Quanzhou the following month. The Thai Airways International (THAI) joint venture LCC (42%) flies scheduled charters to Chengdu and Nanning. “In five years, 40% of revenue will come from China and regionally,” Sarasin said.
Nok hopes for a reversal of fortunes this year after reporting a net loss of $20.4 million during its last accounting period. “The low utilization is because we’ve had a lack of pilots,” Sarasin told AIN. “Our utilization is down to seven to eight hours a day. We’re expecting new pilots in September and plan to get utilization back to 11 hours.”
Nok took delivery of its 30th aircraft on Monday, an 86-seat Bombardier Q400. Its fleet comprises 21 B737-800s, seven Q400s and two ATR72-500s.
In other Thai aviation news, Don Mueang-based NewGen Airways will acquire four B737-800s next year, its CEO, Jarurnpong Sornprasit, told the Bangkok Post. NewGen recently passed the one-million passenger milestone and its CEO plans to add four B737-800s every year for the foreseeable future.
The airline’s strategy focuses on China. Founded two year ago, it serves Changsha, Nanchang, Guilin, Xuzhou, Hefei, Nanning, Wuxi, Ningbo, and Fuzhou from Don Mueang in Bangkok and Krabi in southern Thailand. The carrier is on track to post a 400 million baht (US$114.46 million) net profit this year on five billion baht revenue. NewGen earned 221 million baht on 2.7 billion baht in revenue last year.
