The airline was established in 1968 as Sahakol Air operating air-taxi services under contract from Overseas International Construction Company (OICC), an American construction company, United States Operations Mission (USOM), and a number of other organisations engaged in oil and natural-gas exploration in the Gulf of Thailand. It began scheduled services in 1986, becoming Thailand's first privately-owned domestic airline. It re-branded to become Bangkok Airways in 1989. The airline is owned by Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth (92.31 percent), Sahakol Estate (4.3 percent), Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (1.2 percent), and other shareholders (2.19 percent). It has 1,903 employees and also wholly owns subsidiary airline Siem Reap Airways.[4]