Bangkok Airways upbeat, predicts 4.5m passengers next year
Bangkok Airways reckons it will be able to fly nearly 3 million passengers this year, and about 4.5 million next year now that Thailand has lifted all Covid-19 restrictions.
In an interview with Thansettakij, the airline’s president and CEO Captain Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth said bookings began rising as soon as the government lifted the Thailand Pass registration system.
In the first nine months of this year, the number of Bangkok Airways bookings has risen to 40% of pre-pandemic levels, he said.
Puttipong said 1.7 million passengers took Bangkok Airways flights from January to September, marking a 528% increase compared to the same period last year. In the first nine months of 2021, Bangkok Airways only had 270,000 passengers.
During the same period this year, the airline earned 8.12 billion baht and its seat-occupation ratio has risen to 74%.
“We have already gone beyond our target. Our aim was to earn 8.18 billion baht in revenue and achieve 73% seat occupation this year, and we have crossed that target in just the first nine months,” he said.
“Based on this, we can safely say we will have 2.64 million passengers in total this year and earn about 10 billion baht.”
The number of domestic passengers was higher earlier this year, but bookings on international Bangkok Airways flights began picking up since September 1, he added.
Puttipong said 50% of Bangkok Airways flights are to and from Koh Samui, while the other 50% is covered by flights to other local destinations and neighbouring countries like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
“Our situation is gradually returning to normal now that Thais can travel overseas,” Puttipong said.
The ratio of foreign passengers to domestic passengers now stands at 60:40 compared to 80:20 before the pandemic, the CEO added.
In the first nine months of this year, Bangkok Airways reinstated flights to 17 domestic airports and to seven international ones.
From January to September, the airline completed 19,000 flights compared to just 4,800 in the same period last year.
Before the pandemic, Bangkok Airways flew to 34 destinations, 17 in Thailand and 17 overseas.
He said the airline expects to achieve bookings of up to 80% of pre-Covid levels, getting some 4.5 million passengers compared to 6 million before the pandemic.
Bangkok Airways also plans to launch six new international flights next year, from Koh Samui to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Chengdu and Chongqing and from Bangkok to Mandalay and Phu Quoc in Vietnam.
However, Puttipong said his airline will take into account Covid restrictions in other countries and the global economic situation before launching the new routes.
Apart from resuming flights, Bangkok Airways will also invest in the development of the U-Tapao Airport in Rayong and the Eastern Aviation City project through its subsidiary, U-Tapao International Aviation Co Ltd (UTA).
Puttipong said the U-Tapao Airport project will be delayed for a year, while UTA negotiates the extension of investment phases from four to six. He said UTA believes the growth of passengers will be slower than initially expected.
He added that Bangkok Airways will also invest in the expansion of its airport in Trat by extending the runway to accommodate larger planes and expanding the passenger terminal.
