Nok Air

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Nok Air
นกแอร์
IATA
DD		 ICAO
NOK		 Callsign
NOK AIR
Founded February 2004
Commenced operations July 2004
Hubs Don Mueang International Airport
Frequent-flyer program Nok Fan Club
Fleet size 22
Destinations 30
Company slogan We Fly Smiles
ทุกเที่ยวบินมีรอยยิ้ม
Headquarters Thailand Rajanakarn Building 17th Floor 183 South Sathon Road, Khwaeng Yan Nawa, Sathorn, Bangkok, Thailand
Key people Mr. Patee Sarasin (CEO)
Website www.nokair.com

Nok Air (SET: NOK, Thai: นกแอร์, derived from nok (นก), the Thai word for bird) is a low-cost airline headquartered on the 17th floor of the Rajanakarn Building (อาคารรัจนาการ) in Sathorn, Bangkok, Thailand,[1] operating domestic services out of Bangkok's Bangkok Don Mueang Airport.[2] Nok Air is the budget airline of Thai Airways International. Nok Air is currently an official sponsor of TTM Chiang Mai, Hat Yai FC and Chiangmai FC.

History

A Nok Air Boeing 737-400 (2007).
A Nok Air Boeing 737-400 at Phitsanulok Airport (2011).

The airline was established in February 2004 and started operations on 23 July 2004. It had 130 employees in March 2007 and around 600 in 2011.[2] Nok Air began its first international service on 31 May 2007, with daily flights to Bangalore, India. The airline acquired landing rights to additional Indian cities (Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi).[3]

Nok Air suspended its operations to Bangalore in November 2007 - the second low-cost carrier to suspend operations after Jetstar Asia Airways. According to Rajiv Bhatia, the General Manager for the Indian operations, this was due to non-availability of aircraft, and to allow service to other lucrative routes in South East Asia like Vietnam. However, according to sources in the travel sector, the suspension of operations may be due to the decrease in passenger load factor for Nok Air by 40%.[4]

After its troubled international expansion, Nok Air has decided to focus on domestic services in Thailand. It is now the airline the serves the highest number of domestic routes within Thailand.[5] This strategy has been successful. In 2010, Nok Air generated 618 million Thai Baht in net profit on revenues of 3.97 billion Thai Baht. The airline plans to add seven Boeing 737-800 aircraft and four ATR 72 turboprop aircraft in 2011.[6]

Since its inception, Nok Air has been operating largely independently from Thai Airways International. This has led to some friction between the two companies along the way. To gain greater control of Nok Air, Thai Airways has tried to purchase the shares of other shareholders, notably Krung Thai Bank. However, although Thai Airways and Krung Thai Bank are both state enterprises under the control of the Ministry of Finance (Thailand), Krung Thai Bank refused to sell its shares in Nok Air to Thai Airways. The purchase would have lifted Thai Airways’ stake in Nok Air from 39% to 49%.[7]

Destinations

Nok Air serves the following destinations at July 2013:[8]

Myanmar

* Code shared flights operated by Nok Mini
^ Nok Air service

Thailand

(Service to Krabi Airport will start on 1st January 2014)


** Operated with aircraft chartered from Nok Mini

Nok Air also offers ferry services to domestic Island destinations as well as domestic and cross border coach services to Vientiane in Laos and Penang in Malaysia in conjunction with other tour operators.[8]

Terminated routes

Previously Nok Air flew international services to Bangalore in India[11] which was their first foreign destination, and Hanoi in Vietnam[12] they also offered ferry service to Langkawi in Malaysia.[13]

In Thaliand they flew to Narathiwat.

Fleet

Nok Air Boeing 737-800 at Phuket International Airport.
Nok Air ATR 72-200 at Chiang Mai International Airport.

As of 18 December 2012, the Nok Air fleet consists of the following leased aircraft. [14][15]

Nok Air Fleet
Aircraft Total Orders Passengers Notes
C Y Total
Bombardier Dash 8 0 2(+2 Options) — 86 86 Launch customer for high-density variation
ATR 72-500 2 — — 66 66
Boeing 737-800 14 2 — 189 189 Aircraft on order due in 2013
Saab 340B 6 — — 34 34 Operate Under Nok Air Mini Brand
by Siam General Aviation
Total 22 4

Shareholders

Shareholders[16] % of shares owned
Thai Airways International Public Company Limited 49%
Nok Air Management Hong Kong Limited 25%
CPB Equity Company Limited 6%
The Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited 5%
King Power International Company Limited 5%
Individual investors 10%

Nok Air, wants to raise money to fund its growth and will offer up to 30 per cent stake in the company on the SET in mid-2013. [17]


See also

References

  1. ↑ "Contact Nok." Nok Air. Retrieved on 27 February 2012. "17 Fl. Rajanakarn Building 183 South Sathorn Road, Yannawa, Sathorn Bangkok 10120" - Thai: "ชั้น 17 อาคารรัจนาการ เลขที่ 183 ถนนสาทรใต้ เขตยานนาวา แขวงสาทร กรุงเทพฯ 10120"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-04-10. p. 56. 
  3. ↑ "Party in the sky". Business-standard.com. 7 July 2007. 
  4. ↑ "Nok Air too suspends flights to Bangalore". Economic Times. 13 November 2007. 
  5. ↑ "Nok Air adds more small cities to plan". Bangkok Post. 29 March 2011. 
  6. ↑ "Nok performance hits record". Bangkok Post. 2 February 2011. 
  7. ↑ "KTB rebuffs Thai offer for Nok". Bangkok Post. 24 January 2011. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Nok Air routes
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/aviation/304518/nok-air-plans-new-routes-for-new-planes
  11. ↑ Nok suspends Bangalore
  12. ↑ Nok may restart International flights
  13. ↑ Nok launch combo Fly/Coach/Ferry service to local destinations and Langkawi
  14. ↑ Nok Air Fleet
  15. ↑ Nok Air Mini Fleet
  16. ↑ "Shareholders". Nok Air. Retrieved 2012-07-12. 
  17. ↑ "Busy IPO year for Thailand ahead". Investvine.com. 2013-01-27. Retrieved 2013-02-08. 

External links

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