Nok Air, Thai Airways International, and Thai Smile have signed a partnership agreement wherein Nok Air will operate 3x weekly flights between Bangkok Don Mueang and Mae Hong Son under codeshare with the other two carriers.
The flights will be operated with an ATR72-500 and are scheduled to commence on March 25, 2018.
"The code-share agreement between Thai, Nok Air, and Thai Smile on roundtrip flights from Don Mueang-Mae Hong Son was initiated to support the government policy to promote tourism to secondary or smaller townships in order to boost revenue and tourists," Thai Airways Acting President Usanee Sangsingkeo said.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Mae Hong Son in north-western Thailand is currently only served by Bangkok Airways, which operates out of the airport 14x weekly to nearby Chiang Mai. The city has no direct connections to the country's capital.
The agreement is a part of a broader drive to tighten cooperation between the two Thai Airways units and Nok Air, an LCC carrier in which Thai holds a 21.57% stake. The flights will be marketed by all three airlines. However, as both Thai Airways and Thai Smile have consolidated their operations at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, no direct transfer options will be available on these carriers' networks.
For its part, Nok Air operates 659 weekly departures out of Bangkok Don Mueang, where it is the second-largest carrier behind Thai AirAsia.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Nok Air currently operates two ATR 72-500s, which are deployed on a number of domestic routes out of Bangkok Don Mueang, as well as on an international service connecting Mae Sot with Yangon in Myanmar. The carrier's fleet also includes eight Dash 8-400s and twenty B737-800s.
