Bangkok Airways

Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited () is a regional airline based in Bangkok, Thailand. It operates scheduled services to destinations in Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Maldives, and Singapore. Its main base is Suvarnabhumi Airport in the Thai capital Bangkok.

History

The airline was established in 1968 as Sahakol Air, operating air taxi services under contract from the Overseas International Construction Company (OICC), an American construction company, the United States Operations Mission (USOM), and a number of other organisations engaged in oil and natural gas exploration in the Gulf of Thailand. It began scheduled services in 1986, becoming Thailand's first privately owned domestic airline. It rebranded to become Bangkok Airways in 1989. The airline was owned by Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth (92.31 percent), Sahakol Estate (4.3 percent), Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (1.2 percent), and other shareholders (2.19 percent). At one point, it also wholly owned subsidiary airline Siem Reap Airways in Cambodia. The airline opened its second airport in Sukhothai Province in 1996. A third airport was built in Trat Province, opening in March 2003 to serve the tourism destination of Ko Chang.

The airline made its first foray into jet aircraft in 2000, when it started adding Boeing 717s to its fleet. Until that time, Bangkok Airways had flown propeller-driven aircraft, primarily the ATR 72. It had also operated the De Havilland Canada Dash 8, the Shorts 330 and for a short time a Fokker 100. The carrier added another jet, the Airbus A320, to its fleet in 2004.

Bangkok Airways planned to order wide-body aircraft as part of its ambition to expand its fleet but these plans to expand to the long haul market eventually fell short. It wanted to add its first wide-body jets in 2006 to serve longer-haul destinations such as the UK, India, and Japan and is looking at Airbus A330, Airbus A340 and Boeing 787 aircraft. In December 2005, Bangkok Airways announced it had decided to negotiate an order for six Airbus A350-800 aircraft in a 258-seat configuration, to be delivered to the airline commencing in 2013, but the order of the aircraft was cancelled in 2011 due to the further delay of the Airbus plane.

In 2007, Royal Household Secretary General Kaewkwan Watcharoethai awarded Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth a royal warrant to display the Garuda emblem.

In 2017, Bangkok Airways received a new Air Operator Certificate, recertified to safety standards set out by ICAO from the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand.

On 20 November 2024, it was reported that Bangkok Airways will be wet-leasing two aircraft from Amelia from 1 December 2024 to 29 March 2025 to overcome the shortage of aircraft especially during the upcoming peak tourist season in Thailand.

By late 2024, Bangkok Airways' current jet fleet of Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft were aging and the airline confirmed that it was evaluating both the Airbus A220 and Embraer E-Jet E2 jets as possible replacements. The airline will soon put out a request for proposals from the manufacturers for this potential order with deliveries intended to begin around 2028.

Financials

For the fiscal year ending 31 December 2019, Bangkok Airways reported a profit of 351 million baht on revenues of 29,418 million baht. Its assets were valued at 61,908 million baht. BA lost 300 million baht during the first quarter of 2020, compared with a profit of 500 million baht a year earlier. Earnings have continued to decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the airline has asked for government assistance. As of 31 December 2019, BA employed 3,010 people.

Destinations

, Bangkok Airways flies to the following destinations:

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!Country/territory

!City/region

!Airport

!Notes

!class="unsortable"|Refs

|rowspan="4"|Cambodia||rowspan="2"|Phnom Penh||Phnom Penh International Airport||||align=center|

|Techo International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|rowspan="2"|Siem Reap||Siem Reap International Airport||||align=center|

|Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|rowspan="3"|China||rowspan="2"|Chengdu||Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport||||align=center|

|Chengdu Tianfu International Airport||||align=center|

|Chongqing||Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport||||align=center|

|Hong Kong||Hong Kong||Hong Kong International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|rowspan="2"|India||Bengaluru||Kempegowda International Airport||||align=center|

|Mumbai||Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport||||align=center|

|rowspan="2"|Laos||Luang Prabang||Luang Prabang International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|Vientiane||Wattay International Airport||||align=center|

|Malaysia||Kuala Lumpur||Kuala Lumpur International Airport||||align=center|

|Maldives||Malé||Velana International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|rowspan="3"|Myanmar||Mandalay||Mandalay International Airport||||align=center|

|Naypyidaw||Nay Pyi Taw International Airport||||align=center|

|Yangon||Yangon International Airport||||align=center|

|Philippines||Cebu||Mactan–Cebu International Airport||||align=center|

|Singapore||Singapore||Changi Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|rowspan="13"|Thailand||Bangkok||Don Mueang International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|Samut Prakan||Suvarnabhumi Airport||||align=center|

|Chiang Mai||Chiang Mai International Airport||||align=center|

|Chiang Rai||Chiang Rai International Airport||||align=center|

|Hat Yai||Hat Yai International Airport||||align=center|

|Ko Samui||Samui Airport||||align=center|

|Krabi||Krabi International Airport||||align=center|

|Lampang||Lampang Airport||||align=center|

|Mae Hong Son||Mae Hong Son Airport||||align=center|

|Pattaya||U-Tapao International Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|Phuket||Phuket International Airport||||align=center|

|Sukhothai||Sukhothai Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|Trat||Trat Airport||align=center| ||align=center|

|rowspan="4"|Vietnam||Da Nang||Da Nang International Airport||||align=center|

|Hanoi||Noi Bai International Airport||||align=center|

|Nha Trang||Cam Ranh International Airport||||align=center|

|Phu Quoc||Phu Quoc International Airport||||align=center|

Codeshare agreements

As of August 2024, Bangkok Airways has codeshare agreements with the following airlines.

Air Astana
Air France
Austrian Airlines
British Airways
Cathay Pacific
China Airlines
El Al
Emirates
Etihad Airways
EVA Air
Finnair
Garuda Indonesia
Gulf Air
Hong Kong Airlines
Japan Airlines
KLM
Lao Airlines
Lufthansa
Malaysia Airlines
Oman Air
Philippine Airlines
Qantas
Qatar Airways
Singapore Airlines
Swiss International Air Lines
Thai Airways International
Turkish Airlines
Vietnam Airlines
WestJet
XiamenAir

Interline agreements

Air India
APG Airlines
Hahn Air
Kuwait Airways
Scoot
Swiss International Air Lines

Fleet

thumb|A Bangkok Airways [[Airbus A319|Airbus A319-100 at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport]]

thumb|An [[Airbus A320-200, Phuket International Airport]]

thumb| A Bangkok Airways [[ATR 72-600]]

Current fleet

, Bangkok Airways operates the following aircraft:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;margin:1em auto;"

|+ Bangkok Airways fleet

!rowspan="2"|Aircraft

!rowspan="2"|In service

!rowspan="2"|Orders

!colspan="3"|Passengers

!rowspan="2"|Notes

!<abbr title="Business Class">C</abbr>

!<abbr title="Economy Class">Y</abbr>

!Total

|rowspan="2"|Airbus A319-100

|rowspan="2"|11

|rowspan="2"|—

|12

|108

|120

|rowspan="2"|

|—

|144

|Airbus A320-200

|—

|162

|ATR 72-600

|10

|12

|—

|70

!Total

!23

!12

!colspan="4"|

Historic fleet

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;margin:1em auto;"

|+ Bangkok Airways retired fleet

!Aircraft

!Total

!Introduced

!Retired

!Notes

|ATR 42-300

|1997

|2001

|ATR 72-200

|1994

|2006

|rowspan="2"|ATR 72-500

|rowspan="2"|2002

|2019

|2009

|HS-PGL crashed as Flight 266.

|Boeing 717-200

|2000

|2009

|rowspan="2"|De Havilland Canada Dash 8-100

|rowspan="2"|1989

|1994

|1990

|HS-SKI crashed as Flight 125.

|De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300

|1990

|1996

|Embraer EMB-110P2 Bandeirante

|Fokker 100

|1992

|1993

|McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30

|2008

|Short 330-200

|1992

|1994

Airports owned

thumb|Passengers boarding a Bangkok Airways [[ATR 72|ATR 72-600 at Sukhothai Airport, one of its airports]]

Bangkok Airways owns and operates three airports:

Samui Airport (25 April 1989 – present)
Sukhothai Airport (12 April 1996 – present)
Trat Airport (8 April 2003 – present)

Award and recognition

On 24 June 2024, Bangkok Airways was voted 2024 Best Regional Airline in the World by Skytrax, for the 8th consecutive year running.

Incidents and accidents

On 7 December 1987, a Sahakol Air Hawker Siddeley HS 748 Series 2A (registration HS-THH), was damaged beyond repair after it overran the runway on landing at Udon Thani Airport with no fatalities.
On 21 November 1990, a de Havilland Canada DHC-8-103 operating as Bangkok Airways Flight 125 crashed on Koh Samui while attempting to land in heavy rain and high winds. All 38 people on board perished.
In August 2002 an ATR 72-200 skidded off the runway while landing at Siem Reap International Airport. There were no injuries. The airport was closed for two days.
On 4 August 2009, Bangkok Airways Flight 266, operated by an ATR 72 between Krabi and Koh Samui, skidded off the runway, killing a captain. The 68 passengers were evacuated. Of the passengers evacuated, six sustained serious injuries while another four were treated for minor injuries.

Sponsorship

Bangkok Airways is currently an official sponsor of Chiangrai United, Sukhothai FC, Chiang Mai FC, Trat FC, Lampang FC, Krabi FC, Kasetsart FC, Bangkok Christian College FC and Borussia Dortmund.

References

External links

Official website
Bangkok Airways Fleet