Bangkok Airways: The unknown A350 customer

Introduction

For my post this week, I wanted to touch on something a little unknown and a story that I find very interesting. Bangkok Airways has made quite a name for itself these days as a high quality, regional carrier. Operating out of its main hubs of Bangkok and Koh Samui, it labels itself as "Asia's Boutique Airline" and I think it lives up pretty well to that name.

Originally founded in 1968 as Sahakol Air becoming Thailand's first privately owned airline, it was renamed to Bangkok Airways in 1989 and currently operates a modest fleet of 22 aircraft, comprising of Airbus A319s, A320s and ATR 72s. It focuses on a small regional and domestic network, offering amenities such as hot meals onboard all of its flights as well as lounge access for every single passenger. It's safe to say that these days, it seems like the airline has carved a niche in the market and fits it very well but little is known that the airline once has long-haul ambitions, which were almost realised when the airline placed an order for Airbus A350s back in 2006.

In this week's story, I wanted to get into that order, why it was made and what the plans were for these planes and why the order was ultimately cancelled, where rumours of political meddling and airline sabotage have long been speculated reasons as to why the order was eventually cancelled.

A rendering of a Bangkok Airways Airbus A350, made for when the order was originally announced

A regional airline with long-haul ambitions

By 2005, Bangkok Airways had already made a name for itself as a high quality, full service regional airline, offering all of the amenities it is known for today, such as lounge access for all passengers, full meals on all flights and with a major focus on flights to its hub in Koh Samui. It operated a modern fleet of Airbus A320s, Boeing 717s and ATR 72s, with codeshare agreements with major airlines, to feed its domestic and regional routes.

Free meals onboard, even its shortest flights. This has been a Bangkok Airways standard since the early 2000s

However, the airline had greater ambitions and wanted to feed its short haul services with its long-haul services, also providing a rival for national carrier, Thai Airways. The UK and Japan were highlighted as markets the airline was particularly interested in as they are both historically strong markets for Thailand. The decision was made by mid 2005, that the airline would go ahead with its long haul ambitions and it started shopping for the right planes to allow it to execute its plans.

A340, A350 or 787? Decisions, decisions, decisions

By late 2005, Bangkok Airways was in the midst of looking for the perfect long-haul aircraft to suit its needs. Management by that point had decided that it would need 6 aircraft to efficiently serve what it would label as a "boutique" long haul service, which would've most likely consisted of routes to London, Tokyo and Osaka. The airline went to both Airbus and Boeing in search of the perfect aircraft.

The airline looked at 3 main types, the A340-300, already tried and tested by that point, and a very cheap option as by then, orders had almost grinded to a halt for the A340s. The Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787, while both aircraft had yet to even take their first flights by 2005, they were interesting prospects for the airline as the efficiency they aimed to offer was unmatched , national carrier Thai Airways had not ordered any of the two types, which would make Bangkok Airways the Thai launch customer for whichever it ordered.

Bangkok Airways was quickly becoming a big Airbus customer for Thailand by 2005

The order ultimately went to the A350, with the airline officially ordering 6 in 2006. With deliveries expected to start in 2013, which was in line with the original launch timeline for the A350. The decision ultimate came about due to the airline already operating Airbus aircraft at the time, with orders for A319s also in the books. This would have made them the Thai launch customer of the A350 as by then, THAI was still mulling over whether it would order them or not.

Cancelled! A financial decision, political meddling or sabotage?

By late 2010, the airline seemed to still be poised on taking on the A350, the airline was highly profitable, it had almost doubled its fleet in that time with the additions of new A319s. In preparation of the A350s, the airline also officially launched Business Class onboard selected A319s, dubbed "Blue Ribbon Class" just less than 2 years earlier, having previously been an all-Economy airline.

Business Class on the A319, launched in 2008

It all seemed like it was going ahead but then, suddenly in September of 2011, the order was abruptly cancelled. The original reason given by PG was that it was due to the airline's shift in strategy to focus on short haul as well as the delays of the A350 project and the financial burden that was put on the airline.

However, due to the abrupt nature of the cancellation, especially when the airline looked like it was gearing up for long haul operations, it did not take long for rumours to swirl around.

A month prior to the order being cancelled, Thai Airways had placed an order for 12 Airbus A350s, with delivery due in 2016, after Bangkok Airways' first aircraft would be delivered, as even with delays, the airline expected that it would be flying A350s by 2015. At that point in time THAI was a state owned entity, famous for corruption and uncompetitive practices like lowering its fares to run smaller airlines out of certain routes, opposing the launch to low-cost carriers like Thai AirAsia. For the longest time, it even tried to ensure that Bangkok Air could not operate full service flights on domestic routes that THAI flew.

Bangkok Airways is still one of the few airlines globally that offers lounge access for ALL passengers

So with this in mind, it would same leek a major loss of face to have Bangkok Airways, a smaller competitor be the national launch customer of a brand new wide-body jet. While rumours were never officially confirmed, it was widely touted that the government pressured Bangkok Airways into either postponing the deliveries to be later than THAI's or to cancel the order altogether, in exchange for the airline being given access to more of THAI's domestic routes. Bangkok Airways ultimately cancelled the order and has since focused on being a short haul carrier, eventually pulling out of medium haul markets such as India as well.

While in hindsight, the airline has done very well at being a regional carrier, even operating codeshares with THAI on many routes these days, it does seem like uncompetitive practices were put in place that thwarted the airline's long haul ambitions.

Conclusion

I personally think it is a great loss that Bangkok Airways was never able to realise its long haul ambitions. Seeing how well the airline does short haul, I can only imagine how good its long haul operations would've been.

However, the airline has remained highly successful at doing what it does best, high quality regional flying. And whether it was truly a financial decision to cancel the order, or political meddling, something we'll never know. It just would have been very nice to have another high quality long haul operator from Thailand, giving THAI a run for their money.