Thailand’s Nok Air spreads wings in India

Bangalore: Last year Qantas’ low-cost subsidiary Jetstar Asia grounded its services out of Bangalore. But that has not deterred Thailand’s low-fare airline Nok Air from choosing India’s IT capital as its first global destination.
The Thai no-frill airline, which has a 28% market share at home, is expanding into India to increase utilisation of its existing seven aircraft and boost revenues.
The airline will launch daily flights from Bangalore to Bangkok from June 1 on Boeing 737-400 with a capacity of 150 seats. “By operating overnight flights to Bangalore, we are improving our aircraft utilisation.
During day time, we can operate domestic flights and in the night time, instead of keeping our aircraft idle, we will fly to India,” said Nok Air chief operating officer Patee Sarasin.
India scored over other attractive Asian destinations thanks to its air traffic potential and open regime.
With promotional fare starting from Rs 9999 for a round trip, the airline would require a 70% load factor to breakeven.
15/05/07 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Foreign May 2007