D-day Approaches For Nok Air

[flying]

For reasons that were not made clear, THAI was not currently at liberty to dispose of its shares in Nok Air, he added.

Some executives have also expressed unhappiness over Nok pursuing strategies that did not complement THAI's operations, and in some cases seemed to represent direct competition.

-- Bangkok Post 2008-06-20

These two statements seem to jump out at me most.

[britmaveric]

If you want a monopoly - just look at BKK to Siem Reap. BKK Air only one that flies into there from Thailand. (200quid r/t for 50min flight)

What I see is govt supporting cheapie flights in some form or fashion in order keep tourism thriving.

Edited June 23, 2008 by britmaveric

[moneyshot]

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

I wont mourn the loss of that festering bucket of pus airlines one second!

Bad experience?

[ukrules]

I think some of these flights are too cheap anyway and these companies do need to make a profit.

So many times have I spent more on taxis to/from airports than on the actual flights themselves.

For example a flight from Birmingham to Dublin can cost as little as £50-£80. Four taxi rides are required to and from the airports for a trip like this. Typical cost about £25-£35 per taxi ride. The total for taxis is up to £140 and the flight only £80.

Completely crazy. To make money in this environment they must be cutting every corner possible which I imagine has an impact on safety and service.

[WISteve]

I have a flight scheduled with them in 8 days. That would be a bummer if they folded their wings.

I can get the money back through my credit card company but doubt I would find a cheap ticket very quick (watch AirAsia jack-up every flight that Nok formerly had in direct competition with them).

TG would probably step in......and triple the prices!

~WISteve

[Jefferson]

Other low cost carriers will also fall over.

There will always be low cost carriers, maybe less and more expensive tickets than previous days, but they still will be there to undercut the standard airlines.

I beg to differ.

*ALL* Airlines will become 'low cost' airlines.. Not that they will cost less than they do now, but they will learn that the only way to survive is to cut any service that's not directly related to flying, or charge separately for it.

It's already happening..

So basically the airlines with the deepest pockets will survive; some of those may be current budget cariers (Southwest, possibly Air Asia) but basically everyone will follow the same model.

(This applies to economy; still some good money in biz class to be made, which may actually become more popular as Economy is getting less and less humane.. )

[THAILIBAN]

I do CNX-BKK return very often. I think in three years I used Nok once. They just NEVER offered the best deals. It is always 12Go or AirAsia, and now Thai have a super cheap low season prices. Nok just never had any heart to compete. To me it felt like they were running in the shadow of Thai, by that I mean they were running with the exact same head in the clouds mentality of greater-than-thou. My guess is the management came from Thai airways and had the same cronyism throughout the organisation.

Low cost is cut throat! It needs to be run by used car salesmen to survive! I dont think they had the attitude or mechanism to do so. Thai Inter's complaining about them 12 months ago set in place the well known "krengjai", so how could they compete or be cut throat when big brother was critisizing every move! Poor little bird is dead now!

100% correct. why bother to pay 2000 baht for a low-cost airline, when you can get the same deal with THAI these days, or, even cheaper, Bangkok Airways. just did fly CNX-BKK on Bangkok Airways at 1640 Baht (700 Baht plus taxes and surcharges - Promo fare from their website). they were cheaper than any other budget airline (having said that, I always used to fly no-frills-airlines and will happily continue to do so in the future - they actually enrich my traveller's life tremendously.... ), i could check in 20 Kg of Luggage (or even 30 if u apply for their FF-program), had an assigned seat, a snack and a drink, and access to their lounge at CNX airport b4 boarding....

[THAILIBAN]

Other low cost carriers will also fall over.

the MANAGEMENT makes the difference.

AirAsia is announcing record profits every quarter..... though they said they are aware that this might not be possible in the future as conditons deteriorate....

[huggybear]

Nok Air to Hanoi were great.

A much better service than Air Asia.

but my RT fare Phuket-Bangkok was 2500 with AA and with Nok, 3100.

As far as the service commment, Kee Nok air once told me "sorry sir, plane full" when I had made a reservation a month in advance. Ended up flying in the stewardesses jump seat, had to sign a waiver. That's never happened to me with AA.

At least when the stewardess joined me she asked if that was a carrot in my pocket or if I was just happy to have her sitting on my lap

[Pseacraft]

I for one will be happy to see Nok go under. I make the BKK-Udorn-BKK trip monthly and have slowly over the past year seen Nok evolve from a fun airline to a pain in the royal 6. Nok's Thai flight crews are always wonderful, it's the cocky drivers, clueless ground staff and complete disregard to customer service that pushed me back to TG. I will miss the cool paint.

I'm just glad that I don't have to to the maintenance on any of the domestic aircraft in LOS - way too many hard landings; our drivers get bashed for that.

[ThaiPauly]

IMHO I think that Nok have dug their own grave.

They did not HAVE to relocate back to Don Muang, but they opted to take advantage of the cheaper landing fees on offer without lowering their prices.

I always used to use Nok as my airline of preference for all my trips abroad as a connecting flight from Chiang Mai and back, but there was no way I was going to fly with them and then take a cab all the way across the City to catch my connecting flight.

I am sure that this is also the case with EVERYONE else who is making their way from the provinces to fly abroad, I don't know what percentage of flyers use the budget airlnes for connecting flights from BK , but judging by the luggage that I see now when using AA for the same journey I would guess at 8-10%, so thats 8-10% of revenue they lost from the day they moved.

Air Asia were offered the same incentive to move, but chose not to, which I believe turned out to be a wise choice.

I do't understand why Nok did not consider this , maybe they thought that the onward connecting flight issue was not going to be an issue, but they lost my business when they did it

[THAILIBAN]

IMHO I think that Nok have dug their own grave.

They did not HAVE to relocate back to Don Muang, but they opted to take advantage of the cheaper landing fees on offer without lowering their prices.

I always used to use Nok as my airline of preference for all my trips abroad as a connecting flight from Chiang Mai and back, but there was no way I was going to fly with them and then take a cab all the way across the City to catch my connecting flight.

I am sure that this is also the case with EVERYONE else who is making their way from the provinces to fly abroad, I don't know what percentage of flyers use the budget airlnes for connecting flights from BK , but judging by the luggage that I see now when using AA for the same journey I would guess at 8-10%, so thats 8-10% of revenue they lost from the day they moved.

Air Asia were offered the same incentive to move, but chose not to, which I believe turned out to be a wise choice.

I do't understand why Nok did not consider this , maybe they thought that the onward connecting flight issue was not going to be an issue, but they lost my business when they did it

I rather think there was some kind of an "hidden power", pushing from behind (THAI AIR and their pathetic management, combined with pressure from several political parties!!!) that forced them to follow THAI back to DMK.

by the way, there has been a director's meeting at NOK on thursday, but I didnt find anything in the english-language media.

no results have been published so far ?

Edited June 28, 2008 by THAILIBAN