Thailand: Phuket Air cancels nearly all scheduled flights.

(From Thai Press Reports)

Section: Corporate News - Hit by a spate of bad publicity, a poor public image and soured overseas business partnerships, Phuket Airlines has decided to make a soft landing - ending most scheduled flights, ceasing charter operations and leasing nearly all of its fleet including the nine Boeing 747 jumbo jets, the Bangkok Post reports.

Vikrom Aisiri, founder and president of the privately owned carrier, said Tuesday he would virtually throw in the towel after a four-year struggle to keep flying in a hostile operating environment made worse lately by soaring fuel costs.

The frustrated Mr. Vikrom, who is also a Thai senator, said the company was preparing for the "soft landing" to limit further losses and troubles. He said he looked back on four years of prejudice, negative perceptions from authorities, the media and even some members of the public, at home and overseas.

The latest blow came on Monday when the civil aviation authority of France listed Phuket Airlines among six carriers banned from its airspace for safety reasons.

Phuket Airlines was forced to suspend its short-lived scheduled inter-continental flights from Bangkok to Amsterdam and London, after a series of incidents. The low point came when some passengers claimed they saw "flames and sparks" from a Boeing 747-200 taxiing for takeoff after refuelling last April 3 from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, a stopover on the Bangkok-London route.

The airline has now resolved to stop chartering its aircraft, a common alternative used by airlines to generate cash from otherwise idled aircraft. That is because of the ongoing bad experience from their general sales agents (GSA) in South Korea and Bangladesh.