NokScoot will pursue conservative growth, rather than adopting an aggressive expansion as was expected after the recent lifting of the red flag against Thailand over aviation safety standards.
The medium-to-long-haul low-cost carrier plans to add only one aircraft to its fleet in the first half of next year, and it may acquire another one later this year.
NokScoot, a joint venture of Singapore's Scoot and Thailand's Nok Air, recently took delivery of a fourth Boeing 777-200 wide-body jet.
Yodchai Sudhidhanakul, who became chief executive of NokScoot on Nov 1, said yesterday that the fifth aircraft of the same type should render capacity to support the debut of regular flights to Japan and South Korea in the first half of 2018.
A five-aircraft fleet, and the planned ramp-up of aircraft use from 12 hours a day per plane to 13-14, should also support NokScoot's coverage of China, which remains the backbone of the airline's business.
"Call us conservative or cautious, as the airline industry's dynamic and highly competitive environment requires us to be," Mr Yodchai said.
There have been suggestions that Thai-registered airlines such as NokScoot would resort to significant international expansion after being stalled by restrictions imposed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in June 2015.
NokScoot's prime focus next year is to get the Japan and South Korea routes --which were planned since the airline's founding three years ago but stalled by ICAO's red flag -- off the ground, according to Mr Yodchai.
He confirmed Narita and Incheon as the airline's first ports of entry in Japan and South Korea.
Representing NokScoot's first expansion in the post-red flag removal will be the launch of its seventh route, Bangkok-Xian, on Dec 9 with three flights a week before stepping up to four flights a week in the first quarter of next year.
Mr Yodchai did not name the next Chinese cities that the airline wants to serve, but he indicated that they will be second- and third-tier destinations.
NokScoot operates regular flights to Nanjing, Qingdao, Tianjin, Shenyang, Dalian and Taipei.
Mr Yodchai said the airline's network expansion in the short to medium term will concentrate on the growing Asia market, with India on the radar screen but subject to traffic rights issues.
NokScoot expects to end 2017 with a smaller loss, anything between 50 million and 100 million baht, which would improve on losses of 600 million and 1.2 billion reported in 2016 and 2015.
Next year, the airline hopes to turn its balance sheet around by either breaking even or perhaps turning a profit, Mr Yodchai said.
NokScoot aims to boost revenue next year to nearly 10 billion baht, up from about 6 billion this year and 3.9 billion last year.
The airline's plans call for doubling passengers to more than 2 million next year from this year's expected 1.1 million.