Bangkok Airways expects profit for 2023

Bangkok Airways expects its passenger rate to hit 70-80% of the pre-pandemic level this year, roughly 4.4m people from more than 40,000 flights, and will possibly post an annual profit for the first time since 2019. Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of Bangkok Airways, said long-haul demand has grown better than expected since the final quarter of last year, which will help to hit the target of 15b baht in revenue for 2023. Mr Puttipong said European passengers currently accounted for 60% of the total, followed by Asia-Pacific and Thai passengers. Last year the airline carried 2.6m passengers, or about 46% of pre-pandemic levels, thanks to robust traffic after Thailand's reopening. The number of flights in 2022 tallied 29,892 flights, or over 40% of pre-pandemic levels, with a load factor of 76%, compared to 68% in 2019. As a result, it gained an improving passenger yield of 5.08 baht per kilometre, compared to 4.30 baht per km in 2019. Bangkok Airways currently operates 22 routes, comprising 15 domestic routes and seven international routes. It plans to resume two routes to China in the second half, from Samui to Chongqing and Samui to Chengdu, following the reopening of China.<br/>