European ambition caused Nok Air strike

The CE of Nok Air blames Sunday's flight chaos on the airline's efforts to improve its standards to help Europe operations, which upset some pilots. Nok Air CE Patee Sarasin said Wednesday that the airline management had to stop some pilots from holding both pilot and executive positions in order to meet the standards of EASA, and that had affected the pilots. The airline planned to seal lease contracts with European airlines so that others could lease its planes and pilots to meet high season demand in Europe at a time when it would be low season for Nok Air in Thailand. Reciprocally, Nok Air would be able to lease aircraft and pilots from its European partners to serve demand in Thailand during the local high season when it would be the low season in Europe. <br/>