NokScoot Inaugural Trip Report 2015
Photo album link:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...MKSIN05202015J
May 20, 2015
XW 202 DMK-SIN Lv0825 Arr1155 Boeing 777-200ER HS-XBC “Plai Fah”
One of the few things that I want to do is to fly the first scheduled flight of a brand new airline, and NokScoot seems to arrive at the right moment especially I happen to have an extended stay in Asia. What is NokScoot? NokScoot is basically a joint venture between Nok Air of Thailand and Scoot of Singapore, which aims to take advantage of the huge demands of tourists to and from China, Japan and Korea. Scoot has a competitor at Singapore, which is Jetstar, but its long haul flights from Singapore to China and Japan had since been cancelled. However unlike Scoot in Singapore, NokScoot has a strong competitor in the long haul LCC sector, Thai Air Asia X, which runs a very good operation at DMK, and Air Asia is a strong brand that Thai people seem to believe in and like. Back to the show of this trip report, NokScoot has actually been running charter flights to and from Japan within the past few months, and NokScoot has finally received its scheduled airline authority in March, and announces short afterward about its original inaugural scheduled flight, which is Nanjing on May 5, followed by Seoul Incheon on May 10. Singapore Airlines has already transferred two of its older Boeing 777s to NokScoot, and Scoot has already transferred or will soon transfer its youngest 777 9V-OTF to NokScoot as HS-XBB. However the ICAO news soon broke out in late March and NokScoot’s plan was turned upside down. First the Seoul Incheon flight was immediately suspended, some charter flights to Japan were canceled, and its scheduled plan to Tokyo Narita was scraped. Then the Nanjing flight was postponed to June 2, and then as of now, the Nanjing flight will begin on June 11. Despite NokScoot claiming that it has passed the Chinese inspection a week ago, its authority has not been cleared. With two planes sitting at DMK and accumulating heavy loss, NokScoot suddenly announced that its first schedule flight would be to Singapore beginning on May 20. It even launched a $0 fare introduction. Honestly after reading so many reports on the Thai ICAO fiasco, Nanjing does not look like a possibility in short term, so I decide to just do the Singapore inaugural. Given all the enthusiasms on NokScoot’s social media team, I was hopeful that there would be some celebration. Of course the inaugural ended up being a normal affair, and was actually quite sad when a Boeing 777 with 400 seats had less than 50 passengers (not sure if all were paying too). After doing this so-called inaugural flight, I honestly am concerned about this airline’s future.
NokScoot used the Aisle 7 at DMK and there was no proper sign – only temporary sign. Once again, there were many staffs at the counters but no one was assisting anyone. After running around the Nok Air check-in area, I found the NokScoot temporary check-in area among the Nok Air flights.
At least there was a ScootBiz priority check-in line.
The check-in agent was at least cordial and polite, and there was nothing special so far. There was no celebration and no mention of NokScoot’s supposedly big deal inaugural flight. Where is the Scootitude?
International Flight Display Information System
Immigration and customs were fairly busy at the early morning hours especially there were a number of early morning Air Asia flights. The revamp international area of Don Mueang airport is pretty nice compared to the domestic area. The air conditioning at least works fairly well and what is needed is the availability of some lounges for priority pass members.
We got a pretty good gate, 22 today, which was next to the window. One thing that I really like about DMK was these big windows, which allow some plane-spotting and photography.
HS-XBC “Plai Fah” was towing from the tarmac to the gate. It was interesting that NokScoot chose to use its latest addition, rather than its first plane on this inaugural flight.
NokScoot’s HS-XBC at gate 22
Photo album link:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...MKSIN05202015J
May 20, 2015
XW 202 DMK-SIN Lv0825 Arr1155 Boeing 777-200ER HS-XBC “Plai Fah”
One of the few things that I want to do is to fly the first scheduled flight of a brand new airline, and NokScoot seems to arrive at the right moment especially I happen to have an extended stay in Asia. What is NokScoot? NokScoot is basically a joint venture between Nok Air of Thailand and Scoot of Singapore, which aims to take advantage of the huge demands of tourists to and from China, Japan and Korea. Scoot has a competitor at Singapore, which is Jetstar, but its long haul flights from Singapore to China and Japan had since been cancelled. However unlike Scoot in Singapore, NokScoot has a strong competitor in the long haul LCC sector, Thai Air Asia X, which runs a very good operation at DMK, and Air Asia is a strong brand that Thai people seem to believe in and like. Back to the show of this trip report, NokScoot has actually been running charter flights to and from Japan within the past few months, and NokScoot has finally received its scheduled airline authority in March, and announces short afterward about its original inaugural scheduled flight, which is Nanjing on May 5, followed by Seoul Incheon on May 10. Singapore Airlines has already transferred two of its older Boeing 777s to NokScoot, and Scoot has already transferred or will soon transfer its youngest 777 9V-OTF to NokScoot as HS-XBB. However the ICAO news soon broke out in late March and NokScoot’s plan was turned upside down. First the Seoul Incheon flight was immediately suspended, some charter flights to Japan were canceled, and its scheduled plan to Tokyo Narita was scraped. Then the Nanjing flight was postponed to June 2, and then as of now, the Nanjing flight will begin on June 11. Despite NokScoot claiming that it has passed the Chinese inspection a week ago, its authority has not been cleared. With two planes sitting at DMK and accumulating heavy loss, NokScoot suddenly announced that its first schedule flight would be to Singapore beginning on May 20. It even launched a $0 fare introduction. Honestly after reading so many reports on the Thai ICAO fiasco, Nanjing does not look like a possibility in short term, so I decide to just do the Singapore inaugural. Given all the enthusiasms on NokScoot’s social media team, I was hopeful that there would be some celebration. Of course the inaugural ended up being a normal affair, and was actually quite sad when a Boeing 777 with 400 seats had less than 50 passengers (not sure if all were paying too). After doing this so-called inaugural flight, I honestly am concerned about this airline’s future.
NokScoot used the Aisle 7 at DMK and there was no proper sign – only temporary sign. Once again, there were many staffs at the counters but no one was assisting anyone. After running around the Nok Air check-in area, I found the NokScoot temporary check-in area among the Nok Air flights.
At least there was a ScootBiz priority check-in line.
The check-in agent was at least cordial and polite, and there was nothing special so far. There was no celebration and no mention of NokScoot’s supposedly big deal inaugural flight. Where is the Scootitude?
International Flight Display Information System
Immigration and customs were fairly busy at the early morning hours especially there were a number of early morning Air Asia flights. The revamp international area of Don Mueang airport is pretty nice compared to the domestic area. The air conditioning at least works fairly well and what is needed is the availability of some lounges for priority pass members.
We got a pretty good gate, 22 today, which was next to the window. One thing that I really like about DMK was these big windows, which allow some plane-spotting and photography.
HS-XBC “Plai Fah” was towing from the tarmac to the gate. It was interesting that NokScoot chose to use its latest addition, rather than its first plane on this inaugural flight.
NokScoot’s HS-XBC at gate 22
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