Patee apologises in Nok damage control
Bookings down since Valentine's Day fiasco
Bangkok Post
Writer: Boonsong Kositchotethana
Position: Deputy Editor Business
Published: 7/03/2016 at 06:30 AM
Newspaper section: Business
Nok Air boss Patee Sarasin issued the company's first formal apology to customers on Friday, nearly three weeks after mass flight cancellations triggered by a pilot strike and sudden resignations.
His five-paragraph letter was emailed individually to customers by name largely to explain the issues that have troubled the budget airline since Feb 14.
In the letter, Mr Patee talked about the actions taken to address problems that led to some 20% of Nok Air flights being cancelled with several other flights operated by other airlines on its behalf through charter arrangements.
Some industry observers felt a formal apology was long overdue, a move to restore the airline's diminished credibility as shown by significantly slower bookings, clouding its business outlook. There has even been a management shake-up at the SET-listed carrier.
"Nok Air's name has definitely been tarnished by the turn of events and clearly it will take time to regain passengers' confidence," said an industry observer who requested anonymity.
"Much depends on how concrete the remedial action is, how well it is implemented and that no additional setback takes place."
A looming obstacle for Nok Air was the allegation by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand that the airline and its pilots breached legal flight time limits over the past three weeks. That will raise questions about the airline's safety oversight, an issue that has plagued the kingdom's aviation industry in general.
If found guilty, Nok Air and pilots are subject to penalties such as fines and suspension of air operating licences, which could halt more flights.
In the letter, Mr Patee singled out the pilot strike on Valentine's Day for causing the fiasco, which has resulted in the airline operating at roughly a third of its capacity.
"We have been working on several issues in our organisation as the airline plans future cooperation with European partner airlines, and that requires Nok Air to upgrade its standards to the higher levels of the European Aviation Safety Agency," he said.
"As a result, certain pilots did not accept the changes and went on strike to express their discontent, which affected our passengers and was followed by additional pilot resignations, causing a pilot shortfall and more flight cancellations."
Some 20 pilots left Nok Air.