Nok Air Begins Business Recovery Plan

8th Mar 2017

For the Thai-registered airline Nok Air, business recovery could be a long and arduous journey. At least that is what the carrier’s Chief Executive Officer Patee Sarasin expects.

Speaking for the first time after Nok Air revealed a loss of 3.28 billion baht for the previous year; Mr. Sarasin told the media that it will be some time until Nok Air is finally out of its financial problems for good.

Nok Air CEO said:                                            

It's unrealistic to expect us to be back in the black this year due to the depth of problems, but maybe we can break if our remedial plan works well and no significant impact from external factors arises. Let me put it this way, Nok Air was in a less fortunate situation than others because of unexpected factors that hit us on many fronts, and were well beyond our control.

Sarasin identified three things that the recovery plan will focus on:

1. Improving aircraft utilisation
2. Reducing aircraft capacity
3. Better cost control

Patee said the carrier plans to improve aircraft utilisation from the current eight hours per day to 10 hours per day and night charter flights to India and China should help Nok Air do this.

Last year, Nok Air acquired five new Boeing 737-800 jets to its fleet as well as two Bombardier Q400s and is now facing aircraft capacity problems. As a result, they will have to shed around 5% in order for its fleet to meet the network and frequency equilibrium.

Finally, Nok Air will also tighten cost control, especially when it comes to aircraft maintenance, which was one of the main factors for its losses last year. Aero-engine maintenance contributed to about 50% of Nok Air’s higher operation costs.

In its financial statement, Nok Air said that its total operating costs for 2016 increased to 15.41 billion baht (by 14.1%) mainly due to aircraft and aero-engine maintenance costs, but also as a result of lease rental.

Out of the 3.28 billion baht loss, 2.80 billion is from Nok Air’s own operations and 473.48 million baht from its medium-to-long haul affiliate NokScoot.

Related Airlines

• Nok Air
• #

Related News

Nok Air announces new routes

Nok Air to fly between Bangkok Hyderabad

Chiang Mai to Korat route returns with Nok Air

Nok Air to transform Chiang Mai into their main gateway.

Related Travel Guide Articles

Thailand Airlines Comparison