CARRIER SEES BT120M NET ON BT10 BILLION REVENUE

The airline's revenue is expected to break the Bt10-billion (US$ 310 million) barrier for the first time. Instrumental to the growth projection will be the airline's expanded network, flight frequencies, fleet size, greater passenger volumes and revenue boost.
It performed robustly in the first quarter of this year with significant improvements in major parameters.
The January-March results were in line with the airline’s strengthened flight operations, higher passenger tally, increased fares, enhanced yields and cost control exercise.
The airline, a joint venture between Thailand’s Nok Air and Singapore-based Scoot, reported a net profit of Bt37.05 million (US$ 1.15 million) in the quarter, up sharply from Bt9.99 million (US$ 1.15 million) in the same period last year.
"We are pleased with the first- quarter results as they bode well to our target to report a healthy 2018 year-round performance," said NokScoot CEO Yodchai Sudhidhanakul.
Despite the odds of fierce market competition and expected higher fuel prices, NokScoot is confident to fully turn its balance sheet around since its inception in 2014 this year.
"We think we can manage the higher fuel prices envisaged this year and that factor should not hinder our 2018 profit forecast," Yodchai added.
Its revenue soared by 32.90 per cent to Bt1.77 billion (US$ 54.90 million) compared to Bt1.33 billion (US$ 41.30 million) a year ago with total costs grew at a lower rate than revenue despite a spike in fuel prices.
The quarter saw NokScoot boosting its average fare per passenger by 10.20 per cent from the previous period.
The airline carried 311,165 passengers in the first quarter, which were 57,909 over the previous quarter’s level. NokScoot raised flight tally to 883, up from 684 in the earlier period, thanks to the deployment of an additional aircraft that brought the fleet to four Boeing 777-200 wide-body jets.
For the whole of 2018, NokScoot projects to carry 1.88 million passengers, 76 per cent more than 2017.
Later this year will see NokScoot spreading its wings to Japan, South Korea and India.
This year's network expansion was spearheaded on June 1 with the inauguration of Bangkok-Tokyo (Narita) daily services.

EXIM THAILAND 
EXPORT GROWTH FORECAST
REVISED UPWARD TO 9%
Export-Import Bank of Thailand (Exim Thailand) has revised upward its forecast of thisyear’s export growth to between seven per cent and nine per cent from between five per cent and eight per cent, in line with the high growth of 11.5 per cent in the first four months of this year.
Exim Thailand president Pisit Serewiwattana revealed yesterday that the country’s export outlook has been on an uptrend. Supporting factors include the high global economic expansion: International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently forecast global economy to expand by 3.9 per cent , the highest in seven years, and raised global trade growth from 4.6 per cent to 5.1 per cent.
The second factor is the higher-than-expected increases in oil price: The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has revised US crude oil prices upward from US$63 a barrel to $70 a barrel on the back of strong global oil demand in line with global economic recovery. 
This prompted the exports of oil-related goods such as finished oil, chemicals, rubber products and plastic resin which represent around 15 per cent of total export value to expand significantly,
The third factor is that global manufacturers are still relying on Thailand as a production base with increased investments: This is partly attributable to the progress of the government's Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) scheme.
The prospects of Thai exports in 2018 have become brigter, particularly to Europe, Japan and Asean countries where Thai export growth is expected to edge up by more than 9 per cent. 
As for exports to CLMV and other new frontier markets, Thai export growth forecast has been raised from 6.7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively to 8.5 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively.
However, there are certain negative factors that may hurt Thai exports and dampen growth in the remainder of the year, such as increasing fluctuations in the foreign exchange market, trade protectionist measures, international political woes, and particularly the looming uncertainties over US-China trade.