NokScoot, TAAX swoop into profits
Thailand’s two long-haul low-cost carriers — NokScoot and Thai AirAsia X (TAAX) — have seen a turnaround in their balance sheets at last.
TAAX and NokScoot, whose operations have been in the red since their inception a few years ago, posted a net profit of 188 million baht and 9.9 million baht, respectively, in the first quarter of this year.
It is the first profit for the two airlines, whose wings have been clipped by constraints involving the Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) red flagging of Thailand’s aviation safety shortcomings. The 2015 restrictions have barred both from expanding into high-traffic markets.
The first-quarter income made by NokScoot, a joint venture of Thailand’s Nok Air and Singapore’s Scoot, was in sharp contrast with the 76.4-million-baht loss posted in the same period last year.
The result represents a continued improvement as its China-focused strategy paid off.
NokScoot has managed to narrow losses from 1.22 billion baht in 2015, its first year of operations, to 612 million baht last year, according to official figures.
The substantial loss in 2015 was because it only commenced flights in May, and the result yielded at that point did not reflect the full-year performance.
For the first quarter of this year, NokScoot raised its revenue by 53.7% to 1.33 billion baht.
It attributed the profitability to its expansion of international routes, increase in flight frequencies, more passengers with higher cabin factors and reduced unit costs.
Meanwhile, TAAX, part of Malaysia’s AirAsia X Bhd, saw its revenue in the first quarter of this year rise by 17% year-onyear, with passengers carried rising 15%, recording a 94% load factor, an increase of five percentage points from 89% in the same period last year.
The airline said the outlook for the rest of 2017 remains positive as Thailand is a natural tourist hub with traditionally strong inbound and outbound track record.
Executives of TAAX and NokScoot expected the hopeful lifting of ICAO redflag towards this year-end to reactivate its network expansion plan.
TAAX operates six Airbus 330-330 widebody jets on four international routes — Narita, Osaka, Incheon and Shanghai — from its Bangkok’s Don Mueang.