Bangkok Airways traces its origins back to Sahakol Air in 1968 as the first private aviation company established in Thailand. Sahakol Air was initially an air taxi service operating a twin-engine, ten-seat aircraft during the Vietnam War. Bangkok Airways started operations in 1986 as the first privately owned commercial domestic airline in Thailand.

The Thai airline brand has come a long way flying to around 20 destinations spread across eight countries in Asia. Positioned as Asia's boutique airline, Bangkok Airways flies to those destinations meticulously selected for their rich local culture and history, but not easily accessible to a main stream tourist.

The underlying brand theme of Bangkok Airways is to excite its customers onboard with innovative features, in line with the excitement of flying them to exotic locales across Asia. One of the features that Bangkok Airways has introduced is the Boutique Kid Sets, which ensures that the children on board are entertained with good food of their choice and with some fancy toys.

Another example is the departure lounge at Bangkok Airport which is equivalent to First Class or Business Lounges at other airports. The difference is that the lounge is available to all passengers.

As a testament to its service quality, Bangkok Airways has been awarded the World Airline Award twice in a row from the international airline magazine Skytrax for the Asian regional airlines category.

The airline industry, especially in Asia, is getting extremely competitive with full service airlines and the budget airlines fighting it out for customers. As flying distances within the Asian region is around 4-6 hours on average, budget airlines are even wooing the traditional full service customers with incremental services. In such a scenario, Bangkok Airways, by shifting the focus away from price to the exotic locales, seem to have taken the first step in the right direction. But this alone might not be enough in the long run to sustain the excitement in the brand.

With the emergence of airlines such as Jet Star Asia, ValuAir and Tiger Airways which are mostly hybrids between the traditional full service airlines and the budget airlines, the Asian airline industry seems to have another round of very tough competition. The emergence of these airlines has created a new segment where the airlines offer moderate services at competitive prices.

Given this new scenario, Bangkok Airways cannot depend solely on its routes and themes. In spite of these developments, what would ensure the long term success of Bangkok Airways is the clear differentiation that it can create through its brand. An unrelenting investment in its brand and a constant innovation to delight its customers will be the first step in this direction. Bangkok Airways must ensure the brand balances carefully between a strong promise and spotless delivery.