THAI in trouble

New business plan ordered

Thai Airways International (THAI) may boast that its flights and service are as “Smooth as Silk” but the logo certainly doesn’t apply to its finances. They have become somewhat crumpled. And the airline’s president Sumeth Damrongchaitham, the latest in a string of chiefs who have tried to turn around its fortunes, is obviously nearing the end of his tether. In an unprecedented outburst he confronted his executives at an internal training session and laid it bare. “THAI is really in a crisis. Next year it must do its best. If staff are still unaware and do nothing, they will not have enough time to fight back. Today very little time remains. Today there is no comfort zone. Everyone dies if this ship sinks,” was his dire warning.

Sumeth wasn’t joking. In the first half of this year the carrier posted a loss of $310 million and that is predicted to balloon to more than $480 million for the whole of 2019. Worse, it has accumulated losses of $13.5 billion and these keep on rising. On top of that, its total debts are somewhere around $12 billion. The futures of the 20,000-strong workforce are clearly on the line, and the carrier’s owners, Thailand’s military government, are also losing patience.