Thailand’s dynamic market is poised for further growth and more intense competition as the country’s flag carrier prepares to launch yet another new airline. The board of Thai Airways International has approved in principle the creation of a new regional carrier which aims to operate B737s on domestic and international routes starting in Mar/Apr-2012.
The exact business model of the new airline, provisionally called Thai Wing, will not be determined for another few months. But the concept is for Thai Wing to have a lower cost structure than Thai Airways International and be aimed at responding to growing competition from low-cost rivals rather than replace any of the existing or other proposed new carriers in the Thai portfolio. Thai already has a 39% stake in Nok Air, a low-cost carrier which was launched in 2004 and only operates on domestic routes with a fleet of B737-400s and ATR 72s. Thai also has a 51% stake in Thai Tiger, a proposed joint venture carrier with Singapore-based Tiger Airways which aims to launch A320 services later this year on international routes.
Thai Wing is expected to operate a fleet of seven B737s within its first year and grow to a fleet of at least 11 B737s within three years. Thai has said five of the initial aircraft will be sourced from its own fleet while the other two will be leased from external sources.
Thai International only has five narrowbodies remaining in its fleet, all B737-400s, according to Ascend and CAPA data. Thai Wing could potentially take over these B737-400s, leaving Thai as all-widebody operator. Thai Wing could also take the 11 new narrowbody aircraft being acquired by the group as part of its new fleet plan while Thai's last five B737-400s could end up with Nok. Under either alternative, it seems Thai will be adopting the strategy of its more profitable Asian rivals Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. Both SIA and Cathay only operate widebody aircraft but use their regional subsidiaries SilkAir and Dragonair to operate thinner routes with narrowbody aircraft.
Like SilkAir and Dragonair, Thai Wing is expected to be a regional carrier offering a full service. SIA also owns a 33% stake in Tiger but, as is the case with the Thai Airways-Nok relationship, SIA and Tiger are independently managed.
Thai Wing may also borrow some elements of the low-cost model as it aims to operate under a significantly lower cost base than Thai Airways. Some of the cost savings compared to its mainline sister carrier will be achieved by sourcing crews externally from Thai’s existing structure.
Unlike SilkAir and Dragonair, Thai Wing will also operate as a unit within Thai rather than as a new subsidiary. In this respect, Thai could be following the model employed by Garuda Indonesia, which has a low-cost unit in Citilink. Garuda has unveiled plans to rapidly expand Citilink and use it as a tool to compete against fast-growing low-cost carriers on both domestic and international routes.
Another Southeast Asian flag carrier, Malaysia Airlines (MAS), has been using its fast-expanding subsidiary Firefly to try to fend off growing low-cost competition regionally. Firefly has a significantly lower cost structure than mainline MAS but is considered a full-service regional carrier – a model Thai could look to emulate with Thai Wing. In the end Thai could borrow various elements of the business model used by its Asian peers Cathay, Garuda, MAS and SIA.
Thai and MAS (and to a lesser extent Cathay and SIA) have a common challenge in having to compete against low-cost giant AirAsia in their home market. Thai AirAsia currently operates 10 domestic and 15 international routes from Thai’s hub airport, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, with a fast-growing fleet consisting of 20 A320s. Thai AirAsia currently has 12% of the international market at Suvarnabhumi, compared to 40% for Thai Airways, based on capacity (seats).