Nok Air cuts losses: CEO
Nok Air said it continued to improve the bottom line in the first quarter of this year with further reductions in losses, thanks to improvements in all key parameters.
Consolidated losses narrowed significantly to Bt26.88 million from Bt295.57 million during the same period last year.
Revenue grew by 5.6 per cent from the same quarter last year to Bt4.32 billion as average cost per seat declined and more passengers were carried, despite the rise in fuel costs.
"The result is better than expected and it clearly shows that our business turnaround plan has continued to bear fruit and we are on the right course for recovery," Nok Air CEO Piya Yodmani said.
Adoption of new marketing initiatives which allow Nok Air to capture several market segments, increased competitiveness, stricter cost control enforcement and productivity enhancement have contributed to improved financial result, he said.
Those improvements allowed Nok Air to better deal with the 23.2-per-cent increase in fuel costs in the period, Piya noted.
The airline was able to fill more seats in the quarter, thus achieving an average of cabin factor (the proportion of seats filled) of 93.8 per cent, 6.1 points higher than last year in the same quarter.
This year the airline carried 3.8 per cent more passengers with a tally of 2.52 million, up from 2.43 million in the same period last year, thanks to the surge in passengers on its expanded Chinese traffic.
The quarter saw Nok Air increase aircraft use by 21.5 per cent to 10 hours per aircraft per day from 8.23 hours, contributing to higher productivity.
Piya said at the end of the quarter, Nok Air operated a fleet of 29 aircraft, down from 31 a year ago. The airline added two domestic routes in the first quarter to a total of 25, while its international scheduled routes remained unchanged at three.
