Strategies with a personalised touch
WITH a new general manager in town, Thai Airways International (Thai) is bound for an exciting change.
With more than 27 years of experience in the airline industry, Thai’s general manager (Malaysia and Brunei) Nivat Chantarachoti is game to take on the Malaysian market.
“It’s a challenge; it’s tougher than what I expected because it’s dominated by low-cost carriers,” said Chantarachoti on his new role.
In a market that is highly price-sensitive, he found that many Malaysians opt for full-service carrier’s airlines as an alternative only after they have ruled out low-cost carriers. This translates to a trend of last-minute bookings for Thai, which means difficulty in predicting sales.
Taking on this challenge, Chantarachoti plans to implement changes.After a thorough research on both full-service and low-cost airlines, he adopted certain strategies that are predominantly practised by low-cost carriers.
One such strategy is the recently launched advanced purchase promotion whereby customers enjoy lower flight fares according to a set number of days the booking is made in advance. Since its implementation in late August, Thai saw an immediate bump in sales. In September, bookings skyrocketed with a 97% increase in sales.
“That is almost double in the same period last year,” he said.
Building on its success, Thai continues to initiate different strategies such as “flash sales”, which offer customers a chance to enjoy special deals that run only for a week to selected destinations under certain conditions.
It may be premature to predict the outcome of his strategies, yet Chantarachoti remains optimistic.
Apart from revamping fare structures, Thai is shifting from the traditional approach in engaging with both customers and travel agents.
The distribution in Malaysia is by far more personalised, rather than systematic like its European counterpart, where it deals primarily with wholesalers, who then disseminate the products to their branches.
Instead, Thai deals with many independent travel agencies across Malaysia, rather than appointed bodies.
Since May, Chantarachoti has travelled around Malaysia to meet the agencies in person to revive Thai in the local market by bringing that personal touch to the front lines.
In a similar vein, Thai had recently introduced a product inspection trip for travel agents across Malaysia, which ran for two consecutive weeks with five flight departures to Bangkok.
Fifty staff members were invited for a short day trip to experience first-hand its in-flight services, check-in process, ground services and its award-winning lounges and spa. He believes that this experience will provide the agents with a clearer picture of Thai and its products to better cater to its customers.
Thai also hosted a product briefing for travel agents over an afternoon tea at the Majestic Hotel and a black-tie dinner for the management of top agencies to announce its plans to change strategy for Malaysia.
When asked about the outcomes of these strategies that he had set in motion, Chantarachoti said he holds high expectations for this market. However, he pointed out that not all these newly implemented strategies will work.
“Give me some time to familiarise myself with the market and see what can be adapted to further improve Thai. We want to be different from other carriers,” said Chantarachoti.
In the grand scheme of things, we eagerly await to see the new changes he has in store for Malaysia.
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