Interview: Patee Sarasin, Nok Air CEO

Full article on forbes.com

Nok Air's outgoing boss believes his company needs a strategic partner to stay afloat and that Singapore Airlines may step in if Thai Airways International (THAI) ends its financial support.

“The shareholders have been discussing about this themselves,” Patee Sarasin told me this month, when asked about the possibility of THAI abstaining from Nok’s 1.7 billion baht ($51 million) recapitalization. “The current major shareholders now, beside THAI, have expressed that they are willing to take all of it if TG [THAI] doesn’t want to participate.”

In that scenario, Sarasin said Nok would begin searching for a new strategic partner “that can provide knowhow”. He confirmed that Singapore Airlines, an existing partner of Nok’s through low-cost long-haul venture NokScoot, would be among the candidates...

Ukraine’s aviation sector is holding the country back

Full article on economist.com

Look at a map of domestic air traffic in any rich country and the relationship between flying and economic prosperity becomes obvious. In America, 614 towns and cities have regular flights to other domestic airports. Australia has 144 such places. Even in modestly sized Britain that number is 49. The more complex and headache-inducing a domestic route map becomes, the more a country fosters connectivity between its regions. Development naturally flows. It is a symbiosis that helps to fuel growth in rising economies like India and China. Yet not all emerging markets foster the link between travel and wealth...

Interview: Yaroslav Agafonov, Yanair CEO

Full article on forbes.com

Ukrainian airline Yanair has secured traffic rights for several European countries and expects to launch new scheduled services in the summer 2018 season.

“We are intending to enlarge the geography of our network from Kiev and Odessa,” chief executive Yaroslav Agafonov tells me, referring to the airline’s flights to Tbilisi and Batumi in Georgia, plus Tel Aviv in Israel. “It may be secondary airports, not huge airports, for example Krakow in Poland, Paderborn in Germany, or Frankfurt Hahn.”

Agafonov also identifies Cyprus, Italy and Romania as potential targets for expansion, without specifying which cities will be considered in those markets...

Interview: Volodymyr Omelyan, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister

Full article on forbes.com

With a score of 29 out of 100 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index – placing it 131st out of 176 counties – Ukraine was guaranteed a turbulent ride in March when its pro-Western government moved to liberalize the closely guarded civil aviation market. It ultimately took just four months for Ryanair to cancel its planned launch in the country, retreating from what Volodymyr Omelyan, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister, describes as “sabotage” by a network of post-Soviet oligarchs and vested interests...