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AVIATION
BOONSONG KOSITCHOTETHANA
The low-cost carrier Thai AirAsia (TAA) has received a windfall in passenger numbers and cargo loads from the suspension of rival One-Two-Go Airlines and dramatic cutbacks by Nok Airlines.
TAA has seen the average cabin factor on domestic routes rise by about five percentage points to 85%, enabling the carrier to turn its balance sheet around by the end of this year, said chief executive Tassapon Bijleveld.
It is estimated that the cut in seats supplied by One-Two-Go and Nok Air could increase TAA's 2008 passenger volume to 4.8 million, from its target of 4.6 million.
TAA, which operates about 50 flights a day to 10 Thai cities and 10 regional destinations, is now the only low-cost carrier in Thailand continuing its flights without any cutbacks in frequency or suspension of domestic routes.
However, Mr Tassapon said that achieving even higher load factors would be an uphill task in the light of sluggish domestic demand caused by deepening political unrest. He added that TAA would not rush into increasing its domestic flight capacity for the high season beginning in late October.
''We would rather wait and see how the market responds before charting a future plan,'' he said.
Mr Tassapon said that despite the easing of fuel prices, TAA remained vulnerable to prohibitive fuel costs that account for half of the airline's operating costs.
He added that TAA was working on a number of revenue-generation models, such as selling onboard food and collecting express boarding fees, to help achieve profit.
''What we are doing now is generating revenues from all possible means, no matter how trivial they may be, in order to survive,'' he said.
Despite the challenges, TAA is expanding its flights overseas, where it sees growth potential, with the launch of a daily Bangkok-Hong Kong flight in the last week of October.
The airline is also considering a plan to introduce scheduled services from Bangkok to Bali and Guangzhou by the end of this year or early next year.One-Two-Go's licence was suspended by the Department of Civil Aviation for two months until Sept 20 for failing to meet safety standards and lacking appropriate management, and because some of its pilots had falsified documents to misstate their aviation proficiency.
Nok Airlines, better known as Nok Air, has been forced to cut back its flight operations by 70% over the past two months after suffering a loss of around 200 million baht, due mainly to high fuel prices.
The full-service airline THAI has been another beneficiary of One-Two-Go's and Nok Air's reduced services, with its cabin factor on domestic routes reaching 80-90%, according to THAI executives.
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