| URL: |
http://www.orient-thai.com/
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| Telephone: |
+66 2 229 4260 |
| Type of airline: |
Scheduled airline |
| Country: |
Thailand (TH) |
| Call sign: |
Orient Thai |
| Address: |
Orient-Thai Airlines
18 New Rachadapisek Road
Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110
Thailand |
| Home airport: |
BKK |
| Year founded: |
1995 |
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Number of aircraft: |
6 |
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Description:
Orient Thai Airlines? heritage stretches back to 1990, when CEO and MD Udom Tantiprasongchai, while a textile industrialist, spied an opportunity to start an airline in Cambodia where after three decades the civil war was entering its closing chapter.
Cambodia International Airlines (CIA), Udom?s first airline and Cambodia?s first commercial flag carrier in 15 years, took to the skies the following year. With the Vietnamese withdrawal and the Khmer Rouge on the run, peace was displacing war under the auspices of a huge UN operation. Business prospects were good, but murky politics was muddying the outlook. So in 1992 Udom?s attention turned back to Thailand, which was not particularly hospitable to private airlines at that time either. Air transport industry regulations gave Thai Airways International (TG) a juicy monopoly, leaving only the nominally marginal routes it shunned for private carriers. Undaunted, Udom remained confident that demand existed for cheap fares even on interprovincial routes. So in 1993 Orient Express Air, the forerunner of Orient Thai Airlines, applied for its Air Operator?s Certificate(AOC). That application took time, a long time. Meanwhile political machinations in Cambodia were working against CIA, forcing Udom to withdraw his group?s investment in December 1994.
Five months later he was clutching a Thai Air Operator?s Certificate and Orient Express Air was on its way to being the first private jet operator in Thailand in over two decades. Flights began in September using two Boeing 727s to fly from the airline?s
Chiang Mai base to Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani and Khon Kaen in northeast Thailand, plus Hat Yai in the deep south near the
Malaysian border. With tickets often selling for a third of the price charged by TG and routes avoiding tedious transits in Bangkok or the only alternative, tortuous road trips, Orient Express Air?s flights were popular.
Success encouraged Orient Express Air to lobby the Government for permission to fly non-stop from Chiang Mai and other cities in Thailand to Bangkok in 1996. Confident approval to fly the same routes as TG would be forthcoming, Orient Express Air bought two Lockheed L1011 Tristars from Cathay Pacific Airlines and changed its name to Orient Thai Airlines that year. However state-owned TG?s influence proved too strong and Orient Thai Airlines? request was rejected. Nevertheless Asia?s first lowcost airline struggled on, putting the Tristars into service in 1997, flying to Bangkok from both Chiang Mai and Phuket via U-tapao, about an hour south of the capital. This absurd situation was the only way to circumvent the regulations. Nobody ever alighted in U-tapao.
Orient Thai Airlines soldiered on for two years losing money on domestic routes. Udom hoped that by proving demand for its services existed the Government would relent and change the regulations. Unfortunately this was not the case. So in 1999 Orient Thai Airlines suspended domestic services to focus on international charter operations.
While waiting in vain for permission to take on TG domestically, Orient Thai Airlines was busy running profitable charter flights in the high seasons between Bangkok and Macau on behalf of Hong Kong tour companies. It was barred from flying to Hong Kong, as this was TG?s prerogative.
Orient Thai Airlines was Asia?s only international charter operator. Along with subsidiary Kampuchea Airlines it provided services to other airlines including Finnair, Lufthansa, LTU and Merpati.
It transported refugees around the world for the UN?s International Office of Migration (IOM), including returning people to Kosovo from Australia and helping Timorese return to East Timor in 1999 after it won its independence from Indonesia. Orient Thai Airlines also became a designated UN carrier, transporting troops for peacekeeping operations worldwide.
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