Thai's Air Andaman scraps S'pore route

Thai's Air Andaman scraps S'pore route

BANGKOK: Grounded Thai carrier Air Andaman is struggling to survive a double-whammy of record high fuel costs and cut-throat competition as it scrapped plans for its Bangkok-Singapore flights, the airline said in a report Friday.

One of Thailand's first low-budget carriers to emerge after industry deregulation began here a decade ago, Air Andaman stopped flying altogether in July after a steady phase-out of routes and will be hard-pressed to stay in business.

"We have canceled our plan to fly to Singapore," Air Andaman executive director Atichart Athakravisunthorn said in the Nation newspaper, adding the carrier was being squeezed out by bigger and more aggressive budget airlines currently engaged in a dog fight over Asia.

Air Andaman, which owns no aircraft but had been leasing small planes in its fleet, had been due to jump start the service June 1.

Earlier this year after abandoning domestic routes, Air Andaman had planned to focus on short regional routes that were largely ignored by bigger carriers, but a surge in fuel prices by more than a third this year and the arrival of low-cost airlines signaled hard times ahead.--AFP