R Airlines announces business expansion plans

The airline was established in 2012 and now is expanding its charter service for military forces domestically and for tourist groups on international routes. More business plans were revealed yesterday, including raising funds on the Stock Exchange of Thailand and expanding into scheduled services.

Rachata Phisitbanakorn, president of Skyview Airways Company, said he held the majority stake of 51 per cent in the airline, and 20 per cent was held by two Chinese firms, whose main interests are property development in Chongqing and Tianjin. The rest of the shares are held by Thai investors.

Rachata is a former Pheu Thai MP from Bangkok. 

He said R Airlines was set to tap the booming tourism and aviation industry in Asia with an investment of Bt1 billion. The airline targets both international and domestic charter routes with high traffic demand. 

“We plans to expand our routes and our fleet to meet the rising demand for air charter services. We also project revenue of Bt450 million in 2015 and plan to be listed on the Thai stock market by 2017.”

He said the Thai aviation industry continued to enjoy growth, with estimated total industry revenue of more than Bt400 billion last year. 

The air charter business has posted a compound average growth rate of more than 40 per cent since 2009. Moreover, the boom in international and domestic tourism has been the key factor driving aviation-industry revenue as well as attracting new players to invest in the industry.

R Airlines is certified by the Department of Civil Aviation to provide charter service on both international and domestic routes. It connects to strategic destinations with high load factors such as Taiyuan, Shijazhuang and Xuzhou in mainland China, Gaya and Varanasi in India, Taipei in Taiwan, Muan in South Korea, and Hanoi and Dalat in Vietnam. 

In addition, the airline provides charter service for the Royal Thai Armed Forces, transporting soldiers back and forth from the three southern border provinces in an effort to boost the morale of the Army as well as raise security and save travelling time. 

“Based at Don Mueang International Airport, at present there are three aircraft worth over US$300 million in the fleet, an Airbus A321-200, an Airbus A320-200 and a Partenavia P.68 twin-engine, high-wing monoplane,” Rachata said. “It plans to add the modern Airbus A319 aircraft to its fleet by mid-2015. 

“R Airlines has an approved maintenance programme, which is administered by its own technical department at Don Mueang International Airport. It also has an experienced team of 150 personnel including 16 pilots and 60 crew members,” he said.

The company posted revenue of Bt300 million in 2014 and projects Bt450 million this year. It has budgeted more than Bt40 million for brand building and marketing.

The airline plans to buy between five and seven new aircraft over the next few years with an initial investment of Bt1.5 billion for down payments. The existing leased aircraft then will be returned. It also plans to run scheduled flights to link Thailand with many other cities overseas.

The airline also plans to deploy a sport marketing strategy to build up brand awareness, which is considered a challenging task in the air charter business. The company has decided to support Thai boxing to help promote this martial art and enhance its popularity abroad.

It is now the main supporter of Rachanon Boxing Camp to help Thai youths enhance their skills and potential in Muay Thai so as to become professional Thai boxers some day. It also signed a memorandum of understanding this week with Lumpini Boxing Stadium to sponsor the Lumpini Thai Boxing project with live telecasts on TGN every Saturday from 4pm to 6pm. The fight name will be also be changed to “Suek Muay Thai Satarn Fah R Airlines”. 

 Apart from supporting Thai boxing, the company is playing a part in the development of Thai soccer by taking over the management of Loei City R Airlines Football Club.