O N E R E P O R T 2 0 2 2 OVERVIEW BUSINESS OVERVIEW AND PERFORMANCE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FINANCIAL INFORMATION SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT 38 Thai Airways, the national airline which positioned itself as a full service, provides customer experience branding “Touches of Thai” which offers multiclass scheduled services, complimentary in-flight meals, a frequent flyer programme and airport lounges and is based its operation at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Thai Airways established Thai Smile to provide connecting services in domestic and ASEAN countries. Moreover, Thai Airways has generated more cash by opening THAI Catering and expanding into the logistics business. In addition, Thai Airways filed the rehabilitation petition on 27 May 2020. Following that, on 20 June 2021, the court issued an order approving the rehabilitation plan, and on 20 October 2022, the Central Bankruptcy Court approved the proposal to amend Thai Airways’ rehabilitation plan. With the tourism recovery, Thai Airways reported positive EBITDA in 2022. Nok Air, a low-cost carrier that focuses on customers who are highly price-sensitive on airfare and offers aircraft rental service in addition to operation. Nok Air bases its operation at Don Mueang International Airport. Previously, Nok Air filed the rehabilitation petition on 4 November 2020, and later on 29 September 2021, the court issued an order approving the business rehabilitation plan. Despite being in rehabilitation, Nok Air held its position in the domestic market having the second-largest market share after Thai AirAsia. Bangkok Airways, the owner and operator of the airports including Samui, Trat and Sukhothai is a boutique full-service carrier focusing mainly on Samui Island routes. The airline focuses on leisure travellers and routes not exceeding five hours from the operation centres, covering Southeast Asia, South Asia and India. Furthermore, Bangkok Airways has invested in the ‘City Airport’ deal in The Eastern Economic Corridor, which will fortify ground business, catering, and warehouse in the future. Toward the end of the year, it successfully established the BA Airport Leasehold Real Estate Investment Trust (BAREIT) with an investment size of Baht 14,300 million to acquire leasehold rights over land, building, runway, taxiway and apron, passenger terminals among other related assets for operating Samui Airport. Thai Lion Air, a low-cost carrier of Indonesia under PT Lion Group, started its operation at Don Mueang International Airport. The airline strategy provides a competitive price against competitors with the slogan “We make people fly” with more focus on route expansions of domestic routes. In late 2021, Thai Lion Air started its air cargo business using Airbus A330 aircraft, which has a base of operations in Suvarnabhumi Airport. Thai VietJet Air, a low-cost carrier of VietJet Airline, bases its operation at Suvarnabhumi Airport and has flown domestic flights since September 2016. Thai Vietjet Air has rapidly grown business through both promotions and route operation expansion, resulting in market share gain from other airlines over the past years. It also focuses on the air cargo business to supplement its income. Thai VietJet Air has diversified its business to the online travel booking platform (OTA) business under the name “Skyfun.travel” in July 2022. Thai AirAsia’s strategy aims to solidify its position as a leader in the domestic market and to keep expanding strategically on international routes through competitive dynamic pricing, prime flight times and frequency, quality of service and distinguished on-time performance. With the recovery of the tourism industry, Thai AirAsia has adjusted its flight routes to match demand and improved flight efficiency. This included resuming as many routes flown before the pandemic as possible and also adding new destinations, such as Fukuoka, Japan and Dhaka, Bangladesh for the first time. (To learn more about Thai AirAsia’s business strategy, please visit the Business strategy section.) The major airlines that were granted the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from CAAT provide services on both domestic and/or international routes and have a number of aircraft in service as of 31 December 2022 as shown below. Source: CAAT and SET Filing (No. of fleet: aircraft) 64 54 35 18 16 13
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODEyMzQ3