Thai LCC Nok Air to expand operations in India

Mumbai, June 14: Nok Air, the Thai low fare airline, will soon expand its operations to other Indian cities after connecting Bangalore a month ago.

Tagged the Shopper's Airline, Nok Air flies to Bangkok, a shopper's paradise and one of the world's most popular tourist destinations.

From October, it will start daily flights to Chennai, said its chief executive officer Patee Sarasin. ''We hope to connect Hyderabad by January 2008 and Delhi in second half of 2008. Students and expatriats are our key customers.'' Nok Air did extensive research before launching international route to India, said Mr Sarasin who was here to attend an investor summit organised by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA). ''We aspire to give an amasing shopping and holiday experience to both the business as well as leisure travellers from India.'' Bangalore was Nok Air's first international destination.

The low cost airline is also gearing up to launch operations to Hanoi and Macau early next year. It means Indian travellers can go to Bangkok and then take a connecting flight to either of the destinations.

Nok Air operates daily flights from Bangkok to Bangalore at present, using a Boeing 737-400 with a capacity of up to 156 seats.

Once in Thailand, it can take passengers to all the picturesque and most popular Thai destinations like Chiang Mai, Udon Thani, Phuket, Hat Yai, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Trang, Krabi, Mae Hong Son, Loei, Pai, Phrae, Chiang Rai and Hua Hin where one can enjoy the riches of Thailand and Thai culture.

Nok Air's strategy is to capture rising demand and boost aircraft utilisation rates by operating back-of-the-clock services across the Bay of Bengal.

UNI