Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Well no, but is is the painted-on beaks of Thailand's Nok Air...
The trademark beak paint-job on the front of every Nok Air 737. Photo Nok Air
Nok is the Thai word for bird, and nobody can accuse Nok Air of being shy with its liveries. Its slogan is 'Smiling across Asia', and the bright yellow beaks are painted on all 33 of its aircraft. The fuselages follows through on the daftness and come in various parrot-like colour schemes.
No, I don't know why Nok has an aircraft with a clown fish fuselage behind the beak either. Photo Nok Air
The airline's major shareholder is Thai Airways, but Nok does its own low cost thing from its base at the old Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok - flying to 26 domestic destinations, plus Yangon, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore. One-way fares start at about 900 THB (£20)
A bevvy of beaks on Nok Air 737's. Photo Nok Air
How can Nok Air work for you?
It's well worth keeping Nok Air in mind for domestic flights within Thailand, or to make a low cost hop across to Vietnam.
Pro's: the fleet is new and the cabins are fresh, with hard-working crews. There are three travel classes - 'Promotion', which has no free baggage allowance for the hold, Nok Eco that has a free baggage allowance of 15kg, and Nok Flexi that has a free 20kg allowance and the maximum flexibility to change dates and routes etc.
All classes can make a free seat selection in advance and get an in flight snack, plus free at the gate and on board WiFi - currently free WiFi is fitted in three aircraft, but the system is being rolled out fleet-wide.
Nok Air crew and beak on an ATR-72. Photo Nok Air
& Cons: the seat pitch and width - at 30 inches and 17.2 inches, isn't great, though fine enough for the airlines' relatively short sectors. Keep in mind that the airline's hub is the old Bangkok Airport to the north of the city and not the newer Suvarnabhumi Airport to the west of the city - fine if you are already in Bangkok, but not a good option for connecting to or from international flights, which mostly use the new airport. There is no frequent flyer club.
Front views of a NokScoot Boeing 777. Photo NokScoot
A few facts: Nok Air was formed in 2004 as a low cost airline, partly owned by Thai Airways. Its fleet is made up of eight Bombardier Dash 8's, two ATR 72 turboprops and 23 Boeing 737-100%s. The average fleet age is 6.5 years.
Good to know: just when you thought that airline names couldn't get more silly, Nok has teamed up with Scoot Airlines of Singapore to bring us NokScoot. Oh well, it's a low cost medium to long haul airline formed in 2015 that for now is focussing on routes from Bangkok to China and Taiwan. It has three Boeing 777-200ER's.
Blessing aircraft in order to bring good luck is a Buddhist tradition in Thailand. Photo NokScoot
