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Thailand’s Nok Air aim to triple fleet, start Flights to India

Bangkok, July 6 (Bloomberg)- Nok Air Co. said it will triple its fleet over the next two and a half years as it plans to start flights to Bangalore this year, making it the first Thailand-based discount carrier to fly to the Indian city.

 The company, partly owned by Thai Airways International, plans to lease 10 more Boeing Co. 737-400s, Patee Sarasin, chief executive officer of the Bangkok-based carrier, said.

 The airline, which leases its current fleet from Thai Air, flies four Boeing aircraft and an ATR 72 made by France-based Avions de Transport Regional.

 Nok Air plans to start flights between Bangkok and the southern Indian city of Bangalore in October and add four domestic destinations to the eight it currently serves by early 2007.

 Nok Air, one of at least 18 discount carriers that have emerged in the region since four years ago, needs to add routes as rivals including Singapore-based Tiger Airways are expanding their existing network to win more passengers amid rising oil prices.

The nation’s tourist arrivals will probably increase to 14.2 million this year from 12 million in 2005, boosting revenue to a record 490 billion baht (12.8 billion dollar), governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. In the first 11 months of 2005, visitors from India to Thailand rose 16 percent from a year earlier to 349,585, according to the latest data available on the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Web site. They represented about 3.4 per cent of the total overseas visitors. (Bloomberg)