Despite increased airfares, airlines have been unable to absorb rising jet fuel costs during the summer period, with this expense increasing from 30-35% of operational costs to 60% in May.
Anawat Leelawatwatana, senior vice-president for finance and accounting at SET-listed Bangkok Airways, said the airline already cancelled or reduced capacity on routes with low demand and profitability in the first half. These include Bangkok-Phnom Penh, which was reduced from three to one daily flight using smaller ATR72-600 jets, while Bangkok-Phuket was cut from six to five daily flights and Bangkok-Krabi was trimmed from three to two daily flights.
