Thailand airline sector: Bangkok Airways again outperforms Thai Airways, Thai AirAsia, Nok Air in 3Q

Thanks to a clever and disciplined strategy, Bangkok Airways has been the most profitable airline in Thailand in 2015 and by some measures is also the most profitable in Southeast Asia. Bangkok Airways has generated a significantly higher profit than Thai AirAsia so far this year despite its smaller size while the other four publicly traded airlines or affiliates in Thailand have all been unprofitable - Thai Airways, Nok Air, Thai AirAsia X and NokScoot.

Bangkok Airways also reported the largest profit among Thai carriers in 2013 and 2014. Its outlook for 2016 is bright as its codeshare partners continue to expand in the Bangkok market, providing Bangkok Airways more high yielding short haul traffic.

LCC competition continues to intensify in Thailand, resulting in overcapacity and pressuring yields. But Bangkok Airways is relatively immune to the irrational competition at the bottom end of the market because it focuses heavily on traffic originating outside Southeast Asia and has a large and growing operation at the resort island of Samui, where it owns an airport that is not served by any LCCs.