Bangkok Airways restructuring strategy conducted over the last three years pays off with soaring profits and passengers’ numbers. The airline increasingly targets passengers in India as well as in the ASEAN region with new flights to Kuala Lumpur, Yangon and possibly Delhi…
BANGKOK- Three years of restructuring and consolidating have helped Bangkok Airways to emerge today in a far stronger position. With the arrival of Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth at the head of the airline, Bangkok Airways has taken a complete different direction. Previous President Dr. Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth had a kind of “romantic” approach of his airline, turning the small domestic carrier into an international player. In its pioneering years, Bangkok Airways became the anchor element to Samui Island’s success thanks to the development of the airport – which belongs indeed to Bangkok Airways- and the launch of flights to Bangkok, Phuket but also to Hong Kong and Singapore. Bangkok Airways was also the first international carrier to fly to Siem Reap-Angkor in Cambodia. Siem Reap became by then the starting point of Dr. Prasert’s vision of becoming the airline for all UNESCO world heritage sites in Indochina. The carrier launched then flights to Sukhothai in Thailand, to Luang Prabang in Laos as well as to Danang in Vietnam. They have been some setbacks such as the abandon of Danang, Ho Chi Minh City and Vientiane as well the incapacity to secure flights to Hue and Vientiane.
With the economic crisis and the rise in fuel prices taking its toll on the airline, a more pragmatic approach has been taken by Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth. “We will not fly to places where we are not sure that we can get good passengers figures and yields. We also reorganized completely our network to be sure to offer ideal connection waves in Bangkok within our own network but also with our code-share partners,” he explains. Since 2010, Bangkok Airways has consequently increase frequencies on its trunk routes such as Phuket (seven flights/daily), Chiang Mai (six daily flights) while Samui continues to be served between 9 and 12 daily flights out of Bangkok. In 2011, the airline made a big move to South Asia, opening in less than a year frequencies to Dhaka, Bangalore and Mumbai. The strategy paid off: Bangkok Airways saw its profit soaring to THB 1.22 billion (US$ 406 million) last year, up by 56.7%, while total passengers rose by 16.5% to 2.65 million. The airline expects for this year a THB 1.6 billion profit (US$ 525 million), while total passengers would rise to 3.6 million.
For this year, the airline introduced in March 12 weekly frequencies from Bangkok to Lampang, a famous city for its Lanna (Northern Thai) heritage and located 60 km away from Chiang Mai. It launched a daily Samui-Kuala Lumpur flight, increased its frequencies on Samui-Hong Kong from 7 to 10 flights per week. From September 16, it will also offer a third daily frequency in an ATR 72 from Bangkok to Yangon. The aircraft will overnight in Yangon, making the flight the first to leave Yangon in the morning to Bangkok. According to Puttipong, Bangkok Airways prepares also the launching of a non-stop flight from Bangkok to Delhi. “This could happen in time for the winter schedule 2013 when new planes join the fleet,” he explains. Three aircraft are to be delivered this year: An Airbus A319 joined the fleet last March while two Airbus A320 will be integrated in October and December.
To stimulate traffic during the low season, Bangkok Airways also introduced Facebook activities for his campaign ‘Summer Fly Summer Free Campaign’. The campaign started at the end of May and is open until July 16th, 2012. Activities on the social network are proposed with the possibility to eventually win a Bangkok Airways’ Package (Air-ticket and Hotel accommodation) to Samui, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Sukhothai.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
