Nok Air & NokScoot Part 1: accelerated international expansion, initial focus on China and Taiwan

Thailand's Nok Air plans to pursue rapid growth of its international network in 2H2015 with new services to China, Vietnam and Singapore. Its joint venture medium/long-haul LCC NokScoot is also planning to commence new routes to China and Taiwan by the end of 2015 as it will likely not be able to launch long planned services to Japan and South Korea until 2016 due to regulatory restrictions implemented by these countries on Thai carriers following Thailand's failure of an ICAO safety audit.

Nok strategically needs to expand in the international market, where it now has a relatively limited presence. But it will have to overcome competition from LCCs already serving the Thailand to China, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam markets.

This is Part 1 of a two-part series of reports on the network expansion plans of Nok and NokScoot. This part will focus on expansion by both Nok-branded carriers in China and Taiwan as well as Nok's plans for taking over NokScoot's Bangkok-Singapore route. The second part will focus on Nok's plans for expansion in other Southeast Asian markets, in particular Vietnam, and continued expansion in the Thai domestic market.