Nok Air scraps only route to Mae Hong Son in northern Thailand

[webfact]

 

by leah

 

Nok Air flights between Bangkok and Mae Hong Son Airport in northern Thailand will be discontinued on April 19. The province, home to the popular backpacker town Pai, will be only accessible by road since Nok Air was the only airline servicing the airport commercially.

The airline said they can no longer fly the Don Mueang – Mae Hong Son route because they are scrapping their fleet of Q400 aircraft (80-seat turboprops) and swapping them for Boeing 787-800 jets (189 seaters).

Senior President of the Mae Hong Son Chamber of Commerce, Chanakhet Boonyakhan, said that a 737-800 jet could land on the runway at Mae Hong Son Airport, which is 30 metres by 2000 metres. After all, Thai Airways used to fly a 747-400 aircraft, another large jet, to Mae Hong Son with no problem.

 

However, the cost-effectiveness of servicing the route with a 189-seat aircraft is low. The 80-seat flights are often full, but the demand is not higher than that, said Chanakhet. There should be at least 100 people on the flight to make it cost-effective.

 

Full story: https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/tourism/nok-air-scraps-only-route-to-mae-hong-son-in-northern-thailand

 

-- © Copyright Thaiger 2023-04-11

 

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[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

However, the cost-effectiveness of servicing the route with a 189-seat aircraft is low. The 80-seat flights are often full, but the demand is not higher than that, said Chanakhet. There should be at least 100 people on the flight to make it cost-effective.

Drop the price a tad?

[Burma Bill]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

swapping them for Boeing 787-800 jets (189 seaters).

Oh really! A 787-800 Dreamliner has 250 seats (Google)

[phetpeter]

Did the same to Phetchabun, too much hassle for them to join low yield airports together ,

no cross country flights or links,  if the transport business can run double decker buses every two hours with 80 per capacity and make money, there is no reason for airlines to do the same, joining hands with the parcel delivery companies and fresh products, if they can't ot won't make it pay, let new companies try, or the government should step in and have the national airline or the Thai air force to do it. It would make more sense seeing that they can't get the railway to extend the routes to every province.