Private Thai carriers PB Air and Air Andaman are to undergo major expansions after reaching agreement with national carrier Thai Airways International to take over some of its 23 domestic routes.
The long-discussed handover of Thai's routes began on 28 November, when PB Air started operating on routes in the north and north-east of the country. Thai later plans to transfer other routes to Air Andaman and ultimately may stop serving 17 of its 23 domestic routes.
Thai's handover of secondary domestic services to private carriers is part of a government plan for the state-owned airline to focus more on profitable domestic and international operations.
The move had been discussed for some time but was bogged down in bureaucracy, partly because the private carriers demanded that domestic airfares be allowed to rise. The government agreed to allow fares to be increased from mid-November as part of its so- called "open skies" liberalisation.
Thailand has been talking about a domestic liberalisation for years but there has been little action until now. It has officially allowed private operators to compete directly with Thai on domestic routes since last year but the carriers repeatedly complained that attempts to do so were blocked.
PB Air now operates just three Fokker F28 Mk4000s but is looking to expand its fleet with additional aircraft - possibly larger types. Taking over routes from Thai will see its weekly scheduled flights increasing more than four-fold to 28.
Air Andaman, which operates only two British Aerospace Jetstream 31s to two destinations, says it will progressively take over routes from Thai from early next year. It plans to add five Fokker 50s to its fleet by the end of 2002.
Source: Flight International
