Is One-Two-Go doomed?
There are only three budget airlines in Thailand: Nok Air, Air Asia and, of course, One-Two-Go. This week, One-Two-Go announced it will not go anywhere for 56 days, effective from this Tuesday. This news doesn’t come as too much of a shock. As Andrew spotted, One-Two-Go chief Udom Tatiprosongchai “told the Bangkok Post that he was seriously pondering whether to ground the airline temporarily on mounting cost pressures and a poor business outlook”.
This is bad news for anyone who travels within Thailand and it goes beyond just One-Two-Go. Nok Air has certainly been feeling the pressure, as have Air Asia and even “smooth as silk” Thai Airways.
The common complaint among all airlines is the rising cost of oil. Each of the airlines has been cutting back routes in an attempt to save money. I know that tourism in Thailand has taken a bit of a knock in recent weeks, with visitor numbers not as high as was anticipated.
For an airline to simply cease operations for two months is rather extreme. Coincidentally, in today’s Sunday Times there is an article about families of the victims of last year’s September 16 air crash, which saw 90 people killed when a One-Two-Go aircraft crash landed at Phuket International Airport.
Lawyers representing the families of the British and American victims are seeking £125 million in compensation, citing lax safety practices as responsible for the crash.
One-Two-Go has found it hard to weather the storm after the air crash last year and there is also a website, www.investigateudom.com, calling for a full-scale investigation into the airline and its CEO, Udom Tatiprosongchai.
There are a lot of damning accusations being made against One-Two-Go and this cessation of flights may be an indication that the airline is in serious trouble.
July 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Will the decline in tourists mean lower or higher accomodation prices, do you think?
July 20th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
My girlfriend said that changing the name and give a nice present during the first flights under a new name, will let most Thai forget everything.
On the other hand, everywhere in the world airliners are falling down or at least in bad weather, why would this one be an exception?
July 20th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Sadly, Nok Air will be next to go. Air Asia is already cutting back on some routes and raising prices. Thai Air has cut a number of long haul flights…
Maybe this is just the tip of the iceberg for declining tourism in Thailand. The impact world’s economic problems can’t be kept at bay forever.
For most tourists, given the choice of feeding a family, filling up the car with fuel, and heating the house versus going on vacation…what would you do?
I think southern Thailand will be greatly affected by all of this because it is a “budget” destination. The last time I flew into Krabi in high season I could not help but think that I was on a plane with the “white trash” of Europe. Do they have trailer parks in the Ukraine?
Will it drive prices down? Maybe. Will it cause people to whine? Definitely!
July 21st, 2008 at 9:43 am
Udom once had a shipping company with my current business partner. Udom was known to be very lax and liked to forgo costs when it came to preventive maintenance.
He’ll get his, eventually.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Well, reading this, all I can say is Thailand is finally getting what it deserves. I have been for over two years now and I’ve seen the population descend into the lowest common denominator possible. They resent Westerners because of their ‘wealth’. They want it, but they don’t want to work for it. They see Westerners as the geese that lay the golden eggs for them. For a so-called Buddhist country, they are the most bigoted, racist, dishonest, cash-orientated, evil people. Because of Thailand, I’m starting to believe in karma - what goes around, comes around and that’s what’s happening with this decline in tourism. If they want our money, they had better treat us with a damned sight more respect than they have been.