NewGen Airways has seen its business model that focuses on China's outbound leisure traffic to Thailand pay off and flourish.
Barely two years in the skies, the Thai-owned charter airline has carried 1 million passengers to date and started making money last year -- quite a rare feat in the airline industry.
The airline has significantly benefited from Chinese holidaymakers' craze for the Land of Smiles. Some 10 million Chinese visitors are expected this year, up from 8 million last year.
NewGen, which has kept a low profile, expects the robust growth to continue, hoping to nearly double its revenue, earnings and traffic volume as it presses on with expansion.
According to chief executive Jarurnpong Sornprasit, the airline is on course to make a net profit of 400 million baht this year on 5 billion baht revenue, compared with 221 million baht profit and 2.7 billion baht revenue last year.
This year alone, the airline targets to carry a total of 1 million passengers. The tally for the first half of the year has already soared to 410,000, compared with 470,000 recorded for the whole of 2015.
Commencing commercial flights in July 2014 with two Boeing 737-400s, the airline now operates a fleet of eight B737 family jetliners -- four from the B737-400 series and four from the more advanced B737-800 series.
The airline is taking delivery of its eighth and ninth aircraft, both of them B737-800s, in August and October, respectively, to augment its capacity to match fast-growing traffic demand and an expanding network.
There is a plan to acquire four B737-800 jets next year as it retires two aged B737-400s from its fleet, Mr Jarurnpong said.
Its current plan is to add four B737-800s to its fleet annually over the next few years.
NewGen is known for having the largest China-Thailand network of any Thai-registered airline with 17 routes, a far cry from a couple of routes seen in the initial stage of operation.
Nine of them originate from its Bangkok base at Don Mueang airport, and eight from its other base at Krabi airport in the South.
All the routes are operated on a frequent scheduled charter basis -- meaning there are fixed flight times like normal airlines but all the seats are sold exclusively to Chinese tour operators and travel agents and are not available for individual customers.
Mr Jarurnpong said Chinese travel demand for Thailand shows no sign of slowing down and NewGen has had problems matching aircraft capacity with demand for scheduled charter services from secondary Chinese cities.
Among the cities which the airline has been asked to serve from Bangkok and Krabi are Xi'an, Chengdu and Chongqing.
This month alone, NewGen will operate about 400 flights between Thailand and China and carry around 130,000 passengers.
The airline is also looking at the possibility of linking Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket and Surat Thani with China, according to the chief executive.
Over the next five years, NewGen will continue to exploit its current business model by working closely with China's key tour operators to bring Chinese tourists, mostly middle-income earners and families, to Thailand.
"It's proven to be a successful business model as the Chinese love affair with Thailand flourishes," he said.