BANGKOK Airways is on course to achieving its 2011 target of 3.1 million passengers and 10.6 billion baht (US$356 million) in revenue.
The figures would represent a 17 per cent and 29 per cent increase, respectively over last year’s 2.6 million passengers and 8.3 billion baht in revenue.
Bangkok Airways president, Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, said the airline operated at a load factor of 68.4 per cent in the first half of 2011, carrying 1.5 million passengers and earning 5.2 billion baht in revenue.
He added that the airline was expecting to run at an average load factor of 67.8 per cent for 2011.
So far, the airline’s most popular destinations this year have been Koh Samui, Phuket and Chiang Mai. The popular multi-daily Bangkok-Samui service has been running at a cabin factor of 80 per cent year-to-date. The six-daily Bangkok-Phuket service has been operating at a cabin factor of 80 per cent, and the five-daily Bangkok-Chiang Mai flights, at 70 per cent.
The carrier’s six-weekly Bangkok-Mumbai service, launched in March, has been operating at 70 per cent cabin factor, while its five-weekly Bangkok-Bangalore flights starting September 26 are expected to run at 60 per cent load factor (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 28).
Meanwhile, the airline yesterday kicked off a 50-million-baht My Love, My Traveller media campaign to boost the number of its Thai passengers by 17 per cent over last year’s 530,000, which would alter the Thai versus foreign passenger ratio from 20:80 to 30:70.
By Sirima Eamtako
