Fly with PMT!

Registered at the Registry of Ministry of Commerce in the Kingdom of Cambodia as Progress Multitrade this airline has recently changed its brand name in order to increase recognition of the company and also to align itself better with its three-letter designator to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Because of this it is now known as PMT Air and operates routes in Cambodia and also internationally flying passengers, presumably in hysterics, to Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Pusan, Bangkok, Pattaya and Hanoi.

They currently operate one Boeing 737 and three An-24s. They plan to expand and replace their fleet using ATR-72s in order to provide the highest comfort to passengers who fly with PMT.

From what I understand the people behind this venture are not Cambodian but rather Russians with a somewhat limited knowledge of English. Foreign residents and educated Cambodians are currently pissing themselves with laughter all over the country as the company has begun to promote their routes using a number of slogans including "Fly with PMT!"

I have yet to fly with PMT and am not entirely sure if I might just book a flight for the jokes it would be worth.

Phuket Air - the troubled child of Thai aviation

Phuket Air is one of the most interesting and controversial airlines that has existed in Thailand. The airline was established in 1999 but began operations in December 2001 and was the brainchild of Angkana Apiwattanaporn and Vikrom Aisiri, a Thai politician who also owns an equally interesting casino on the border with Myanmar - The Andaman Club Hotel.

Within the year a rapid expansion of investment gained momentum and the airline undertook a significant number of domestic and international routes including flights to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Seoul. They might have been able to maintain this growth profitably but the 2004 tsunami combined with rising oil prices and a decreasing safety and maintenence record placed the company on a very slippery slope.

In 2005 Phuket Air was hit by a series of incidents and accidents including a group of passengers who refused to let the airplane take off after seeing fuel leaking from a wing. Impoundments of planes at airports soon followed after the airline were accused of not paying their bills, much to the interest of the national, regional and international press. After all this was Phuket Air, it was named after an island that many people around the world dreamed of visiting and because of this was an item of interest to people in countries thousands of miles away.

Soon after this string of events Phuket Air was banned by the UK, France, the Netherlands and eventually the entire EU and by February 2006 Phuket Air was only flying two routes, one from Bangkok to Ranong and one to Yangon, Myanmar. The 2006 summer flight schedule was later scrapped with Angkana and Vikram deciding to relaunch and rebrand the airline as Holiday Air offering a few routes domestically and also internationally to Saudi Arabia, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo

Luckily I have never had the rollercoaster ride of flying with Phuket Air but I have followed it's demise closely. It is an airline that gave not only the entire Thai aviation industry a very bad name but also that of the holiday island it was named after (but rarely visited). The company was based in Ranong and Bangkok and only used Phuket as a brand, nobody on the island had any actual investment or real involvement with the airline.

Safety and reliability are of the utmost importance in aviation and Phuket Air was a visible failure. Anybody thinking about flying with Holiday Air shoulds should consider this heavily.

Bangkok Airways - The Boutique Airline

Bangkok Airways began life in 1968 as Sakahol Air, the first private aviation company in Thailand. As tourism and business developed in Thailand so did the success of the airline and in 1986 it was transformed from a small charter airline into a domestic passenger airline and was renamed Bangkok Airways.

Starting with only a few scheduled flights from Bangkok to Krabi, Korat, and Surin the airline steadily increased its activities both domestically and internationally while maintaining a high level of service and customer care. Presently it has permits to fly to over twenty routes domestically as well as international routes to Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, China, and Japan.

Not content with simply flying planes the company was quick to build its own privately operated airports at Samui, Sukhothai, and Trat. It also managed to secure a lucrative, and somewhat monopolistic, deal to fly exclusively to Siem Reap in exchange for investing heavily in the airport there.

Although the airline started with prop-driven aircraft they seized upon the Thai economic revival at the turn of the millenium and invested heavily in jet aircraft and now maintains a fleet consisting of 3 Airbus A320-200, 4 Boeing 717-200 and 8 ATR 72-500 (plus 1 on order). They have also negotiated an order for six Airbus A350-800 aircraft in a 258-seat configuration that are set to be delivered in 2012 (or whenever Airbus manages to actually make the planes).

I have only flown with Bangkok Airways once but I have to say that I was impressed with the high level of pre and in flight service. The staff were polite and I was given an inflight meal despite the fact the flight was only an hour long. The cost was around double that of Air Asia for an international flight but the weight limit on baggage was 5 kilograms more which effectively saved me money. That combined with the good customer service and general professionalism made the flight an enjoyable experience.

One Two GO - No frills but nice little touches

One Two GO Airlines is a subsidiary of Orient Thai Airlines and was created to take advantage of Thailand's increasing market for budget domestic flights. Unlike it's rival Thai Air Asia One Two GO offers inflight services at no extra charge.

Passengers are allocated seats so as to avoid the cattlesque Air Asia boarding scrums and once on board are treated very well considering the low cost of the tickets. The first time I flew with One Two GO I was quite shocked to see I had actually been assigned a seat then I was even more shocked to be given a free glass of Coke and a bag of peanuts, there was even a high quality glossy inflight magazine to read - these are all quite small touches but helped contribute to a much nicer flying atmosphere.

One Two GO first started operations in December 2003 with a Bangkok to Chiang Mai service and has since gone on to create domestic routes to Chaing Rai, Phuket, Surat Thani, Krabi and Hat Yai as well as international flights from Bangkok and Phuket to Incheon and Hong Kong. The fleet currently stands at twelve aircraft with seven Boeing B747s, one Boeing B757 and four McDonnell Douglas MD-82s but is expected to grow in the near future.

All in all the service offered is good value for the price and they compare favourably to competitors in their price range.

Air Asia - Now everybody can fly (within weight restrictions)

Based in at the new Low Cost Carrier Terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport AirAsia is a low-cost airline thats operates many budget domestic and international flights and is said to be Asia's leading low fare, no frills airline. It relaunched as an airline in 2001/2002 after being purchased for a token sum of one ringgit following a number of years of unprofitability and the airline was quickly turned around and started to establish international routes at extremely competitive prices.

The first airline in the region to implement fully ticketless travel and unassigned seats, it managed to expand rapidly across South East Asia often becoming the main aviation provider to countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Macau, China, the Phillipines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Myanmar. They now have a fleet of around 35 aircraft (with thirteen Airbus A320-200 and nineteen Boeing 737-300) and another hundred Airbus 320s on order and are said to carry around ten million passengers per year.

Aside from low costs and low prices a clever sponsorship deal with Manchester United has helped in raising the profile and standing of Air Asia enormously in the region and worldwide with the company becoming the official airline for the football team in Asia.

The success of the Air Asia business model has clear benefits for the company and for passengers. But there can be downsides to the no frills way of air travel though with unhelpful or unwilling staff and uncompromising flight policies for refunds and weight limitations for baggage all adding to the mix.

While unassigned seating keeps costs low for everybody it can also lead to a crowded rush to board the plane and the occasional fight over aisle and window seats. The staff will often stand back and giggle as the passengers take on a cattle mentality by massing at the boarding gate then all swarming towards the aircraft at the first chance.

This is never too much of a problem for me as I wait until two thirds of the cattle shove their way in by which time all that remains are the elderly and less abled travellers who are much easier to push out of the way to get a good seat.

My last trip with Air Asia was booked because the fare was ridicuously low but I had not realised that my suitcase was over the miniscule weight limit of 15 kilograms. The demeanour of the staff was pretty awful and they were pretty unhelpful at first saying that my bag was too heavy and could not go on the flight. I ended up paying several thousand baht extra (almost double the cost of the ticket) and was made to sign a waiver in Thai that basically said if anything goes wrong with the bag then it was my financial responsibility.

Air Asia should certainly be credited with taking South East Asia to the skies but they need to be taken at face value. No frills means no compromise and there is normally nobody around to complain to if you do have a problem and even if you do find someone then the fine print on your ticket normally covers the company for any mishap or financial loss.

They are not my Asian airline of choice but their low prices and excellent number of routes means that I always check their website when I am looking for a flight.