Thai Airways’ profits dive 83% year-on-year

By The Thaiger

 

 

Thai Airways has had an 83% dive in profits for the first quarter of 2019. The Q1 balance sheet came out yesterday.

 

The airline’s management is blaming the high baht, the ongoing US-China trade wars and the closure of Pakastani airspace (forcing rerouting of its Eurpean flights), for the drop.

 

• Net profit of 456 million baht, down from a 2.7 billion baht profit in the first three months of last year

 

Full story: https://thethaiger.com/news/national/thai-airways-profits-dive-83-year-on-year

 

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2019-05-17

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Always put the blame on external factors. Typical Thainess, never look at ownself and self improvement.

They are forgetting to add all the free seats for cronies and their families, and all the perks hangers-on are receiving, are only adding to the airlines woes.

1st class freebies tend to add up

I was waiting for years for them to have sales to travel to Australia, so in all those years of travel to Australia in the interim, they have lost out as other carriers like Jetstar have fares at less than halve the price Thai airways have been offering, and those are direct flights from Phuket to Sydney, although I did fly with AirAsia to Sydney once via Malaysia, the change was a bit boring but hey, i.e. 3 hour layover, but the fare was still half the price.

 

The above said, Thai Airways fly bigger planes with more room, food and alcohol free, as is entertainment, but hey, iPads/tablets these days sort that out, as do ready made meals to take on board, and if you need a drink, you pay a little extra or go without.

 

All of the above said, I would fly Thai Airways to Sydney for $800AUS return, but not over $1,000 when I can get there direct for $580AUS from Phuket all inclusive, just have to take some food/snacks on board, it all adds up when you have a big family of 6, so if Thai Airways wants to stay in the game, it has to drop it's pants, i.e. it's called competition, or better abng for your buck !

Edited May 17, 20197 yr by 4MyEgo

11 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thai Airways’ profits dive 83% year-on-year

That can only mean one thing......time to buy more planes. I just love Thai logic!

4 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

I was waiting for years for them to have sales to travel to Australia, so in all those years of travel to Australia in the interim, they have lost out as other carriers like Jetstar have fares at less than halve the price Thai airways have been offering, and those are direct flights from Phuket to Sydney, although I did fly with AirAsia to Sydney once via Malaysia, the change was a bit boring but hey, i.e. 3 hour layover, but the fare was still half the price.

 

The above said, Thai Airways fly bigger planes with more room, food and alcohol free, as is entertainment, but hey, iPads/tablets these days sort that out, as do ready made meals to take on board, and if you need a drink, you pay a little extra or go without.

 

All of the above said, I would fly Thai Airways to Sydney for $800AUS return, but not over $1,000 when I can get there direct for $580AUS from Phuket all inclusive, just have to take some food/snacks on board, it all adds up when you have a big family of 6, so if Thai Airways wants to stay in the game, it has to drop it's pants, i.e. it's called competition, or better abng for your buck !

"those are direct flights from Phuket to Sydney,"

They fly to melbourne last time i looked

16 minutes ago, webfact said:

The airline’s management is blaming the high baht,

What high baht?   

What they need  is to buy 200 new  planes, get a  new air vice chief air marshall rear admiral and give all staff and their extended  families 1st and Business  class seats as a  perk, lets say 60  times  a year to be reasonable, Im pretty sure that will fix  it.

"The Thai Airways President Sumeth Damrongchaitham is laying the blame at the strong appreciation of the baht"

 

Is a rich high-so here learning first hand that you can't have your cake and eat it? 

5 minutes ago, madmen said:

"those are direct flights from Phuket to Sydney,"

They fly to melbourne last time i looked

Jetstar fly direct to Sydney from Phuket.

 

I have tickets for October which also say that.

 

You might be thinking Bangkok, as they fly to Melbourne, although I also think some flights go to Singapore from Phuket first ?

13 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

That can only mean one thing......time to buy more planes. I just love Thai logic!

Put the price up

Add in free seats to PuYais

 

And ongoing high-So fighting among staff IE, pilots punching a stewardess for doing her job and not getting him a snack,  delaying flights if they do not get their free seats, etc. etc.

 

21 minutes ago, colinneil said:

They are forgetting to add all the free seats for cronies and their families, and all the perks hangers-on are receiving, are only adding to the airlines woes.

That's actually not true but hey, why not trot out an old Thaivisa fable when you get the chance.

Last fall I was looking for flights from BKK to LAX. I usually fly Asiana for around 850USD. I noticed the Thai Air prices for the same travel dates was around 1400USD. I booked Asiana.

 

When I boarded the Asiana flight I found it was a code share flight with Thai Air.

6 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Put the price up

They'll Have Even LESS Bookings Then.....Already The MOST Expensive Carrier.....

Thai airways is burden with a huge group of old administrators that do not want to give up their power and cushy job to the younger more savvy generation. And in Thai culture, one cannot make positive business suggestion without your elders losing face in the company. -So without accountability the financial losses will continue.

-Sad because over 20 years ago it was a leading airline. 

Numbers all different in this article on the same topic. 

 

No profits at all, but actually a loss. 

 

So which is it?  Why do some blog sites bother reporting news if it's all wrong?

 

https://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Corporate/30369539 

Then again, who's to say that The Nation got the numbers right.. The following seems a little strange: 

 

Quote

The cabin factor averaged 80.3 per cent, lower than 80.6 per cent in the same period last year.

THAI transported 6.29 million passenger during the period , up 0.6 per cent. 

Ok, so that's basically the same number of passengers, and a pretty healthy number of seats filled.  So how on Earth do you manage this then: 

 

Quote

THAI AIRWAYS International Plc (THAI) swung to a steep operating loss of Bt828 million in the first three months of 2019.

The airline made an operating profit of Bt3.84 billion for the same period last year.

Same number of passengers, but you go from almost 4 billion profit to almost 1 billion loss?    Like, HOW?!  

 

Edited May 17, 20197 yr by WinnieTheKhwai

The problem I find with Thai is that they are just not competitive in Biz and First which is typically where they make most of their profits

On my last trip in Jan, Emirates charged me £3200 from London, Thai £4300. It's the same story every time I book - dead shame as I would much rather go direct with Thai.

 

 

 

Of course. It is a state owned enterprise, and just look at the state! An airline run by incompetent management, owned by an incompetent administration. How is that supposed to work out? 

 

And on top of all that, way too much arrogance, and attitude, and very little to back it up. Thai is not a top airline. It could be. But, it is not. 

1 minute ago, spidermike007 said:

Of course. It is a state owned enterprise, and just look at the state! An airline run by incompetent management, owned by an incompetent administration. How is that supposed to work out? 

 

And on top of all that, way too much arrogance, and attitude, and very little to back it up. Thai is not a top airline. It could be. But, it is not. 

Not to mention all the free flights for the generals and their families.

As has been mentioned many times before, they're an airline destined to fail. Poor service, older fleets and prices that now I don't even bother to ever check, nor does anyone else I know. 

 

However, the biggest factor in their decline will be not bringing in experienced foreign management to improve the airline. Look at Etihad, Qatar, Emirates etc who all brought in foreign expertise 10 - 20 years ago. That is their sort of competition, yet Thai Airways would never EVER do that. They have a bunch of boot lickers that have been there since the 90s and 80s. ''Solly, you no understan Thai cultuuurrr''.

 

I hope they go bust. 

They have only recently updated their website. For decades it was slow and clunky

48 minutes ago, madmen said:

1st class freebies tend to add up

Not only the freebies, Thai Airways are the last of the big spenders. I happened to be at the 2019 ITB Berlin travel expo in May which is arguably the largest of it's kind in the world.

There are 189 countries, 113,500 visitors and 10,000 individual exhibitors, one of which is Thai Airways.

Thailand had a very large presence which is as it should and the exhibitors showed excellence in their presentations. You can bet TAT personnel would have been there like flies on a pigs ass; and guess how many of them would be sitting up the front in the old jumbos.

Smooth as Silk Thai Airways was about the largest Thai exhibitor. Heaven only knows what the cost of their area would have been, it was huge. Not only that the expo produces a magazine for each of the official 3 days in which exhibitors can advertise their brand name and tourism product. No prizes for guessing which one of the 10,000 exhibitors took out the biggest and the best and most expensive advertisement, three days in a row......Thai Airways no less!

Here is one of their centrefold advertisements. Note the Sgt Shultz spelling of the word "arouse".

 

Edited May 17, 20197 yr by Cadbury

27 minutes ago, thedemon said:

That's actually not true but hey, why not trot out an old Thaivisa fable when you get the chance.

You are living in cloud cuckoo land, making that comment.

My wife has a friend who gets freebies on a regular basis, that is not a fable, just the truth.

Time they realised they are not experts and are the Hub of nothing - poor management and corruption have driven this company into the ground, how many tourist come here every year - why is Thai not getting a decent share of their own tourism market -

 

Simple, they will not code share or allow seasoned foreign experts to run the company, why ?, because they are protectionist, have an inferior complex, and don't want any outsiders involved because it will expose the rampant corruption

49 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

That can only mean one thing......time to buy more planes. I just love Thai logic!

Or, more Thainess: put up the prices even further! ????

15 minutes ago, BobbyL said:

However, the biggest factor in their decline will be not bringing in experienced foreign management

What you mean? We are Thai. This is Thailand. We not need the foreigners. Understand? 

As has been mentioned many times before, they're an airline destined to fail. Poor service, older fleets and prices that now I don't even bother to ever check, nor does anyone else I know. 
 
However, the biggest factor in their decline will be not bringing in experienced foreign management to improve the airline. Look at Etihad, Qatar, Emirates etc who all brought in foreign expertise 10 - 20 years ago. That is their sort of competition, yet Thai Airways would never EVER do that. They have a bunch of boot lickers that have been there since the 90s and 80s. ''Solly, you no understan Thai cultuuurrr''.
 
I hope they go bust. 

They ARE bust




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Random date in September, Brisbane to Bangkok return.

 

Air Asia is less than half the price of Thai.