BANGKOK, 29 June 2020: Scoot announced at the weekend that NokScoot’s board of directors passed a resolution to liquidate the company.
Earlier it had considered other possible alternatives, including an offer to sell its 49% stake in NokScoot to Nok Air for a nominal sum of THB1. The offer was turned down.
Singapore Airlines low-cost airline Scoot owns 49% of the joint venture with the majority 51% share held by the Thailand-based Nok Air.
NokScoot’s shareholders will deliberate the same resolution at an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held in about 14 days, although the outcome has already been decided.
NokScoot has been unable to record a full-year profit since its inception in 2014. Much of that failure was attributed to difficulties growing the network. ICAO red-flagged Thailand’s aviation safety procedures and that led to routes being shut down to South Korea and Japan from 2015 to 2017. Intense competitive on routes to China also cut into operating revenue, and finally, unprecedented challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic magnified the situation.
Consequently, Scoot has not seen a path to recovery and sustainable growth for NokScoot. However, Thailand remains an important market for the Singapore Airlines Group that includes SilkAir and Scoot.
Scoot is the low-cost arm of the Singapore Airlines Group. Scoot took to the skies in June 2012 and merged with Tigerair Singapore in July 2017, retaining the Scoot brand. Scoot has a fleet of 20 widebody Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 25 Airbus A320 aircraft, with five more Boeing 787 Dreamliners, 30 Airbus A320neo and 16 A321neo aircraft on order. Scoot’s network presently encompasses 66 destinations across 16 countries.
