Thai charter airline goes commercial

Bangkok-based charter airline Jet Asia is going commercial with its operations, representatives revealed at ITB Asia currently held in Singapore.

The Thai airline, which has a fleet of six B767-200s, already began flying four times a week to both Nanjing and Tianjin from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi in April. Next, it aims to launch scheduled, regular services to both Seoul Incheon and Tokyo Narita airports by year's end.

The three-year-old airline will also launch a booking engine on its website in the coming weeks to complement this transition from charter to commercial carrier.

For the moment, flights are all-economy, each with 235 seats and providing a hot meal, refreshments and drinks, 23kg of check-in baggage allowance and an iPad-based IFE system — all free of charge. Passengers will also get a pillow and blanket and can check in a golf bag for free.

General manager Juan Martell explains that his airline offers low fares but it is not a low-cost carrier (LCC).

“All of the aircraft are owned by Jet Asia, so we don't have to pay a lease. A lot of times airlines have to pay a certain lease fee, depending on the aircraft, and what they have to do is embed this cost into the ticket they are selling to the passenger. For the 767, for example, you'll probably be looking at around a US$2 million lease per month,” says Martell.

“What we are doing is all the cost savings we have from not making these lease payments allows us to have low costs, and in effect low prices.”

This is where the confusion arises, he adds: “people look at the price and say 'wow, this so cheap they must be an LCC', but in reality we are a full-service airline.”

The average price for a Bangkok-Tokyo ticket was quoted at around US$500.

For more information, visit www.flyjetasia.com

Alex Andersson