Last year, Thai Airways and Tiger Airlines signed an agreement to start up a joint venture Low Cost Carrier.
However, after meeting after meeting with the government, regulatory approval has not been forthcoming. With the agreement expiring at the end of September, and it not being renewed as there is little to not action to push this forward, both sides are preparing to walk away from this agreement.
Whilst this is dragging on and everyone is having close to enough of this, Thai Airways will be forging ahead with Thai Smile. Whilst this airline won’t meet what they were proposing with ThaiTiger, it’s a start.
And it’s not as if Thai doesn’t have a Low Cost operation already. For those who have forgotton, Nok Air is 39% owned by … Thai Airways.
If Thai decides to buy everyone else out and go it alone with Nok, it could be interesting. What could be more interesting is the idea that Thai will go it alone with another LCC…
