Bangkok Airways continues to strengthen its fundamental business drivers to support its 2016 growth plan but will seek to take its brand to a global scale.
The 48-year-old regional airline plans on advertising its brand in the English Premier League (EPL), which is seen as an effective platform to attract worldwide attention.
Bangkok Airways' brand will appear at English football stadiums in three major matches soon after a recently struck accord with an "arranger".
Vice-president for marketing Prote Setsuwan said the experimental publicity exercise would allow the airline to test its effectiveness. But he cautioned that the airline was not ready to increase its advertising exposure to a large scale or sponsor English football clubs at this stage.
"We are not ready to pursue the same path as the Gulf carriers in EPL team sponsorships, an extremely costly exercise that may go beyond the scale of business," he told the Bangkok Post, stopping short of providing more details by citing confidentiality with the arranger.
Bangkok Airways is already heavily involved in sport in Thailand. It sponsors the Queen's Cup Bangkok Airways-SAT Samui Golf Tournament and the Samui Beach Volleyball competition.
The airline this year became an official sponsor of Chiang Rai United, Chiang Mai and Krabi football clubs. It is also involved in more than 30 sporting activities in Thailand and abroad.
Bangkok Airways will this year continue to count on popular actress Urassaya "Yaya" Sperbund as its general brand presenter in Thailand and Asia.
In a media briefing yesterday, president Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth spoke about the conservative but solid growth the carrier will pursue this year.
The airline will seek 10-11% growth in revenue from last year's 24.9 billion baht, increasing profit from 1.84 billion baht earned in 2015 through yield enhancement.
It will also seek to increase passenger volume by about 10% to 5.8 million, boosting its passenger load factor to 68-70%, up from last year's average of 66.8%.
This year will see the airline taking delivery of six to seven aircraft -- three ATR72-600 turboprops and three to four Airbus A319 jets -- to take its fleet to 36 aircraft by year-end.
Three new routes are planned for this year -- Chiang Mai-Mae Hong Son, Bangkok–Danang (Vietnam) and Samui–Guangzhou.
It will add flights on some sectors. Bangkok-Phnom Penh will increase from five to six flights per day, Bangkok–Chiang Mai will go from seven to eight flights, Chiang Mai–Samui will increase from one to two flights in high season and Samui–Singapore will go from one flight to two.