Nok Air downplays flight cancellations

Embattled Nok Air has downplayed the cancellation of 61 of its flights, saying the decision to reschedule flights was made before the Feb 14 pilot strike.

The announcement of the cancellations, unveiled on the Don Mueang airport website, raised fresh concerns over the airline’s operations brought about mainly by its lack of pilots.

However, Nok Air chief executive Patee Sarasin insisted yesterday the cancellations will “not affect passengers” who can travel on charter flights of other airlines Nok Air depends on.

His assurance was posted online after Mr Patee was informed of the cancellations which, he stressed, happened before the work stoppage last month, which left more than 3,000 passengers from 17 flights stranded.

“There is no new announcement of cancelled flights,” the company said on a tweet on its official page.

“We are following our plan announced earlier and expect everything will come back to normal soon.”

The schedule of Nok Air flights between Don Mueang airport in northern Bangkok and major airports upcountry, consists of 27 inbound and 34 outbound flights.

A source at Don Mueang airport viewed the problem as “normal cancellations”.

He said similar announcements were previously made by Nok Air but they did not attract much attention. People started to look more closely at the airline’s flight operations after the pilot strike, the source said.

The Feb 14 strike was first reported as pilots’ negative reaction to the company’s stricter auditing of aviation management. However, after a subsequent TV interview by a Nok Air captain who was dismissed after the event, authorities looked into accusations that the carrier’s pilots were forced to work more than acceptable flying hours. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand is investigating the issues.

Nok Air has been granted permission to use charter flights until March 10 while it solves its pilot shortage.