The national flag carrier yesterday announced turnover results for its 3rd quarter operations which indicated losses of 9.9 billion baht.
Thai Airways International is now cutting cost to ease its heavy operation loss again in the third quarter, starting with salary cuts of its executives by 10%.
The measure came after THAI suffered sustained heavy losses of over 18 billion baht in the last three quarter.
Adding all three quarters turnover results reveal a total net loss of 18 billion baht for the entire year.
Yesterday the deputy director of THAI signed an order whereby all eight executive vice presidents would have to take a 10% pay cut.
This reduction in wages also applies to the deputy director himself.
The executive however admitted that so far they have only been able to trim 7 – 8 billion baht which is lower that the desired target of 10 billion baht.
Thai Airways reported a third-quarter loss of 9.9 billion baht ($277 million) on Wednesday. It posted a 15.6 billion-baht loss in 2014, the worst result since 2008. The airline’s load factor fell to less than 70 percent last year for the first time in a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Thai Airways is facing intense competition with Middle East carriers and low cost companies. Neighbouring countries are also moving fast and are less dependent on Bangkok hub.
With technology improving the fuel consumption and airplane range, lots of traffic don’t need to stop and Bangkok anymore.
According to data displayed by THAI CEO, Mr. Charamporn Jotikasthira, Thailand is still the most favourite destination within Asean for Middle East carriers (namely, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar)
Currently up to 18 flights a day operate from Middle East to Thailand, that is 110,730 seats per week, a rise of 28% from 2014
Most of the traffic goes through Dubai or Abu Dhabi with Thailand’s open sky policy started in 2005. It also allows third-party carriers to fly to Thailand and competitors from other countries to carry passengers from Bangkok to Sydney.
