Thai Low Cost Airline Nok Air To Launch Its First International Flights In April

[Thaising]

Thai low cost airline Nok Air is set to go places, with plans to launch its first international flights - from Bangkok to Bangalore - in April.

To stay ahead of the increasingly crowded budget airline market in Thailand, it's also finding new ways to attract passengers.

Nok Air, which is named after the Thai word for bird, is gearing up for its first daily flights to India.

"We will still continue to expand domestically and we are going to move international as well. Within April, we're going to fly international for the first time, to India," says Nok Air's CEO Patee Sarasin.

Apart from Bangalore, the airline is looking at flying to Chennai and Hyderabad, once its new planes arrive.

Nok Air is Thailand's newest low cost carrier, having jumped onto the budget bandwagon three years ago.

Last year, it quadrupled its net profits to 160 million baht (US$4.5 million) even as other airlines struggled in the face of the competition.

And soon, Nok Air will be selling tickets via mobile phones.

"In the future we'll have a bar code check-in on your mobile phones. You can bring it to 7-eleven, and use the barcode in 7-eleven stores to swipe and you pay cash for it and get a boarding pass," says Patee Sarasin.

"With the SMS barcode, you can walk into the airport and instead of having to report with your ID card, you can use the barcode to swipe and get through. That's your identification to board the aircraft as well. It's going to happen within the next two weeks. It's going to be a very exciting venture and we're probably the first in the world to do this properly."

The concept is also being tried out by airlines in other parts of the world, but you can't fault the very public face of Nok Air for trying all he can to sell his company.

The 44-year-old CEO has appeared in a music video and even sings on stage at some company events.

He says running an airline is a strange shift from his previous career in advertising, but he takes it all in stride.

"I'll be sticking with this airline for some time. I want to see our company people grow, see the shareholders happy, and end of the day, be proud of what we do. As for the future, you never know, maybe within the next 10 years I might get bored of airlines and go do something different. But for now, I think for the next 3 to 5 years, I'll stick to Nok Air for a while," says the budget carrier's chief executive.