News Forum - Nok Air scraps only route to Mae Hong Son in northern Thailand

[Thaiger]

Nok Air flights between Bangkok and Mae Hong Son Airport in northern Thailand will be discontinued on April 19. The province, home to the popular backpacker town Pai, will only be accessible by road since Nok Air was the only airline servicing the airport commercially. The airline said they can no longer fly the Don …

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[Pinetree]

I'm not sure who does the market analysis for domestic flights (and ferry services, but that's another story)  here, but whoever it is wants sacking, as does the CEO's who authorize these routes. The internationally recognized criteria for any low cost jet operator market,  is a consistent load factor north of 70%. I doubt that it was ever possible to reach that on this route, year long, as indeed is the case for many of the new and due to be expanded  domestic destinations here.   Smaller Twin turbo prop services would help the economics, but they don't seem to like that option here and Nok Air are divesting themselves.  I don't blame them, I hate the damn things myself.     Of course, the fast train links being proposed will also kill off many flights, but we may not see that happen for many years. 

[Ramanathan.P]

Any business that doesn't make money has to reconsider its strategy and business model. These routes are best enjoyed on the road. So if the public transport like buses  and vans can be introduced more to cater the demand which is mainly seasonal. 

[Guest1]

 The 80-seat flights are often full, but the demand is not higher than that, said Chanakhet. There should be at least 100 people on the flight to make it cost-effective.

But still, they wanna build MORE of these assumingly unprofitable airports

[NeverForever]

Going to Mae Hong Son is best done on a motorbike from Chiang Mai - lots of twists and turns and beautiful mountain scenery.

[HiuMak]

23 hours ago, NeverForever said:

Going to Mae Hong Son is best done on a motorbike from Chiang Mai - lots of twists and turns and beautiful mountain scenery.

Have to agree on this. Awesome roads for bikers.

But wear a helmet and some gears please.