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Nok Air Eyes China, India Expansion in the Next Two Years
24th Aug 2016
According to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) report, Thailand-based carrier Nok Air will introduce new international routes, focusing on China and India, over the next two years.
Nok Air will operate its first charter flights to China in November when it starts flying to Kunming. CAPA has also quoted Nok’s Chief Executive Officer Patee Sarasin, who said the airline will begin charter flights to Wenzhou and Linyi in China in 2017.
On the other hand, flights to India will probably not be confirmed until 2018. In order to make a stronger presence in India, Nok will likely need a partner there and the airline is currently in talks with several potential ones.
Speaking about India, Sarasin told CAPA Nok will fly scheduled flights instead of charters there.
Charter flights are not as common in India and therefore we will need to commit to scheduled flights from the beginning.
Nok Air has decided to go the charter route instead of scheduled flights because they are based on pre-sales guarantees by tour operators and are therefore less of a risk for the carrier to lose money on.
By expanding internationally to huge markets such as China and India, Nok will enter a new growth phase, not otherwise possible while the airline is “stuck” in the restricted Thai market. This will also allow it to diversify its business and improve profitability.
The carrier originally planned an expansion to India and then to China and Japan back in 2007 (Nok Air was established in 2004), but rising fuel prices and cash flow problems caused it to scrap those plans and concentrate on Thailand.
The low-cost airline entered a partnership with Singapore Airline’s Scoot this year on the following routes: Chiang Rai-Singapore, Chiang Mai-Singapore, Ubon Ratchathani-Singapore, Udon Thani-Singapore and Nakhon Su Thammarat-Singapore.
Besides this, Nok Air has also started a thrice daily Bangkok-Yangon, Myanmar service this year and has launched a service to the capital of Vietnam Hanoi (four times per week) and to this country’s biggest commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City (twice per day).
Nok Air has also announced it will add another flight to the South East Asia, to Mandalay in Myanmar from Bangkok, using Boeing 737-800s and from Chiang Mai with Q400 aircraft.
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