Orient Thai to go back to Charter Service

18th Feb 2013

The pioneer in the budget travel concept in the country, Orient Thai, has terminated two more routes in its network in its quest to go back to charter business.

The latest move by Orient Thai is the result of its downsizing of its scheduled service operations due to increasingly crowded budget travel and shift back to providing charter flights service.

The two routes, Bangkok-Chiang Rai and Bangkok-Hat Yai, saw their last flights on January 6 this year leaving the airline with only two routes remain in its network.

The carrier is merely complying its license as a commercial airline operator for its reason in retaining the two high-traffic routes from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Phuket. The two remaining routes are considered as the busiest and most lucrative routes in the country providing the airline significant revenue to sustain its operations.

Orient Thai has been in the charter business for quite some time, bringing in tourists from mainland China to Thailand. The charter airline has no competition in the routes it has served allowing it to boost its operating profit and keep its revenue growing.

This year, the airline marks its 18th year in the charter flights business since it started operation in 1995 as the first international charter operator in Asia. Last year, it brought 290,000 Chinese tourists into Thailand. The flights into and out of China have been its cash cow.

Its scheduled services have been hampered as its focus on charter flights have been intensified due to high demand.

According to the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, the cutback on Orient Thai's scheduled flights on domestic routes was the result of the airline's disappointment over Thai authorities. Though he didn't elaborate further.

However, many surmise that the true reason of the airline's frustrations was the penalties it received from the Civil Aviation Department after it failed to comply with the commercial aviation regulations requiring them to employ a certain proportion of Thai pilots in all its planes.

The department has meted the penalty to Orient Thai three times already for the violation. The airline coughed up a total of 1.5 million baht as a result.

The carrier has a fleet of an all-Boeing aircraft except for the four McDonnell Douglas planes. Most Thai pilots were not trained to fly the McDonnell Douglas planes. The airline utilizes its MD-80 aircraft primarily for its domestic scheduled services while the Boeing aircraft are generally used for its charter flights.

For this year, the airline is expecting to transport 600,000 passengers, most of whom are international travelers on charter flights.

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