Bangkok Airways

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Bangkok Airways
IATA PG	ICAO BKP	Callsign BANGKOK AIR
Founded		1968 (As Sahakol Air)
Focus cities		Ko Samui
Frequent flyer program		Flyer Bonus
Member lounge		Departures Lounge
Fleet size		16
Destinations		24
Company slogan		asia's boutique airline
Headquarters		Bangkok, Thailand
Key people		Dr.Prasert Prasatthong-osoth(President) hubs=Suvarnabhumi Airport
Website: http://www.bangkokair.com

Bangkok Airways Airbus A320 aircraft.

Bangkok Airways is a regional airline based in Bangkok, Thailand. It operates scheduled services to 20 destinations in Thailand, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, Myanmar and Singapore. Its main base is Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok^[1].

1 History
2 Incidents and accidents
3 Destinations
- 3.1 Domestic
- 3.2 International
4 Fleet
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

A Bangkok Airways plane at Luang Prabang airport.

The airline was established in 1968 as Sahakol Air operating air taxi services under contract from OICC, an American construction company, USOM and a number of other organisations engaged in oil and natural gas exploration in the Gulf of Thailand. It began scheduled services in 1986, becoming Thailand's first privately owned domestic airline. It rebranded to Bangkok Airways in 1989. The airline is owned by Dr Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth (92.31%), Sahakol Estate (4.3%), Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (1.2%) and other shareholders (2.19%). It has 1,903 employees and also wholly owns subsidiary airline Siem Reap Airways^[1].

It built its own airport on Ko Samui, which was opened in April 1989 and offers direct flights between the island and Phuket, Hong Kong and Singapore. The airline opened its second airport at Sukhothai Province in 1996. A third airport was built in Trat Province, opening in March 2003 to serve the burgeoning tourism destination of Ko Chang.^{[citation needed]}

The airline made its first foray into jet aircraft in 2000, when it started adding Boeing 717s to its fleet. Up until then, Bangkok Airways had flown prop-driven aircraft, primarily the ATR-72. It had also operated the De Havilland Canada Dash 8, the Shorts 330 and for a short time, a Fokker F100. The carrier added another jet, the Airbus A320, to its fleet in 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Bangkok Airways plans to order widebody aircraft as part of its ambition to expand its fleet. It wants to add its first widebody jets in 2006 to serve longer-haul destinations such as London, India and Japan and is looking at Airbus A330, Airbus A340 and Boeing 767 aircraft. In December 2005, Bangkok Airways announced it had decided to negotiate an order for six Airbus A350-800 aircraft in a 258-seat configuration, to be delivered commencing in 2012.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Incidents and accidents

On November 21, 1990 a Bangkok Airways de Havilland Canada DHC-8-103 crashed on Koh Samui while attempting to land in heavy rain and high winds. All 38 people aboard were killed^[2]
In October 2001, a Bangkok Airways ATR-72 (HS-PGC), ran off the runway on landing in bad weather at Siem Reap International Airport in Cambodia, closing the airport for two days. There were no injuries.^{[citation needed]}