Thailand-headquartered LCC, NokScoot, has shut down some six years after its establishment as a joint venture between Singapore-based Scoot and Thailand’s Nok Air. NokScoot said last Friday the airline’s board had passed a resolution to liquidate the company. Read More » It had been "operating in very challenging circumstances since its inception", the LCC said, particularly with growing its international network. "Unprecedented challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic" had exacerbated the situation, the airline said. "The board of directors did not see a path to recovery and sustainable growth for the airline," the statement said.
NokScoot said 425 employees had been retrenched with full benefits in line with Thailand’s labour laws and that a small team of employees was remaining at the carrier to see through the liquidation process. An update on the LCC’s affairs would be provided after an administrator was appointed and creditors lodged their claims, NokScoot said.
NokScoot had not posted a full-year profit since it began flying in 2014, Scoot said. The Singapore LCC said it offered to sell its 49% equity to Nok Air, which had the remaining 51% holding, for a nominal sum of one Thai baht. "This was not taken up. We regrettably then had to make the joint decision to move ahead with the liquidation," Scoot said. In a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, it was revealed NokScoot had been in negative equity since 2019.
Singapore Airlines (SIA), the parent company of Scoot, informed the Singapore stock exchange the likelihood of NokScoot being liquidated would result in a one-off charge of S$123.6 million (US$88.8 million) for the three months to June 30 - S$106.9 million in impairment charges on the book value of seven 777-200s leased to NokScoot and provisions by Scoot of S$16.7 million to cover its share of liquidation and related costs.
Australian airline group, Regional Express (Rex), in a regulatory filing to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today, said it planned to raise A$30 million to launch flights between Australia's east coast “golden triangle” of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, with a fleet of five to 10 narrow-body jets, from March 1, 2021. Deputy chairman, John Sharp, said: “With Rex’s expansive regional network of 60 destinations, existing infrastructure in all these capital city airports, superior efficiencies and unbeatable reliability, it will be simply an incremental extension for Rex to embark on domestic operations."
Air New Zealand's (AirNZ) monthly traffic report, published today, showed the airline carried 67,000 passengers in May, a 94.8% reduction from 12 months earlier. Domestic passengers fell 93.2%, to 59,000 in May, with passenger load factor down 37.3 percentage points, to 49%. While a decline from a year ago, the May figures represented an improvement from April 2020, when the airline carried 15,000 passengers in a month that restriction of movement rules were at their most stringent in New Zealand.
The government of India has extended the deadline for expressions of interest (EOI) to buy Air India by two more months, to August 31, 2020. The date change was prompted by requests from interested bidders "in view of the prevailing situation arising out of COVID-19", India's Ministry of Finance said in a statement. Previously, EOI submissions to purchase the government-owned carrier were to expire tomorrow.
India has extended the suspension of scheduled intentional commercial passenger services until July 15. However, the notice from the office of the directorate general of civil aviation, published on Friday, said international scheduled flights may be allowed to operate on selected routes by the competent authority on a "case to case basis".
Air China, China Eastern Airlines (CEA) and China Southern Airlines (CSA) received their first Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) ARJ21 regional jets at a delivery ceremony in Shanghai on the weekend. "The simultaneous delivery of the three aircraft marks the official entry of ARJ21 aircraft into the fleets of international mainstream airlines," COMAC said in a statement. The ARJ21s have 90 seat all-economy configurations.
