THAI struggling with huge debt, executives asked to take voluntarily pay cut

[Eric Loh]

1 hour ago, Selatan said:

Not sure if a state-owned carrier like Thai Airways has the same kind of problem like our national carrier, Malaysia Airlines, but after many bailouts, another bailout was approved again today:

 

Malaysia Airlines gets another RM300m injection from Khazanah

MAS and TA have identical problems like poor quality leader, state owned and handicapped by too much influencing by the government and an unproductive poorly trained large employees which are mostly unionized. The RM300 injection from Khazanah is just to keep MAS afloat for now but its long term problems are structural and takes much much more to have the money, political will and courage to reform. 

[owenm]

Many major international airlines have experienced major financial hurdles, including QANTAS, Australia's major airline..

 

The CEO cut his own salary and perks by about 50%, as well as cutting meat to the bone to reduce operational costs, cutting back on overtime, reducing management staff and paying bonuses, retiring older poor fuel efficient aircraft, leasing newer aircraft with better fuel efficiency.. Cutting back or culling unprofitable routes.. QANTAS was on the verge of bankruptcy, but by turning it around it is now quite profitable again, without having reliance on government handouts. But with sensible management decisions to rebuild the brand and go from operating in the red for several years, back into the black again..

 

If Thai cannot see the writing on the wall by now and make major decisions to restructure their major national carrier, it will disappear like the Abyss.. 

[tomazbodner]

These executives must be paid 100s of millions of dollars per month to make a dent...

 

Now really, how about this: stop flying people around for free in first class with their entire families on shopping trips, optimize fleet for the profitable routes and make a route sharing agreements with other carriers for those that aren't making THAI any money. That should end with surplus of staff and planes. Offer outsourcing of trained staff to other airlines that are struggling to find talent, and get rid of gas guzzling planes that make no profit whether they fly or sit on the ground. Lower costs per flight and no freeloaders would allow for ticket prices to be more competitive, and thus more people would choose THAI. And <deleted> stop giving away tickets at 300EUR from Europe to Thailand and charging 1500-2000EUR for those unlucky enough to start their travel in Thailand to compensate. Patriotism isn't worth anywhere near that much. As seen from last quarter losses.

[tomazbodner]

12 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

MAS and TA have identical problems like poor quality leader, state owned and handicapped by too much influencing by the government and an unproductive poorly trained large employees which are mostly unionized. The RM300 injection from Khazanah is just to keep MAS afloat for now but its long term problems are structural and takes much much more to have the money, political will and courage to reform. 

You'll find it hard to find any airline that's government owned/backed that's not in the same situation, unless their government is sitting on oil and pump their planes up with cheap/free jet fuel in home hub...

[Eric Loh]

10 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

You'll find it hard to find any airline that's government owned/backed that's not in the same situation, unless their government is sitting on oil and pump their planes up with cheap/free jet fuel in home hub...

SIA is the exception; state owned and profitable. The government allowed them to run independently and they have good quality leadership. 

[tomazbodner]

1 minute ago, Eric Loh said:

SIA is the exception; state owned and profitable. The government allowed them to run independently and they have good quality leadership. 

I saw the story of SIA... and upon handing over establishment capital, government told them up-front that this was first and last financial injection. Other airlines see the state as a handy ATM with no limit...

[Briggsy]

1 hour ago, grego49 said:

To have any hope they need a  outsider to take charge,but it will never happen,

I am not sure there would be many foreign executives interested in unravelling a corrupt Thai government entity after the Michael Wansley affair.

[trainman34014]

''Whatever can be sacrificed must be sacrificed ''.    Could make a good start by trimming staff level by 30% and getting rid of all the 'Family and Friends ',  many who do absolutely nothing but sit at home most of the time and recieve pay cheques.   Next; cut out all the free travel for the 'Do you know who i am' bunch and properly charge the same people for overweight luggage of 40-70 Kilo's a throw !

[PlastikbinLina]

4 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

How obscene that these executives - and there must be dozens of them - beside their inflated salaries also are actually being paid extra allowances to attend meetings. Attending management meetings are part of the job description of top executives and thus already should be included in their salaries.  

All of them sitting quietly nodding sagely without a murmur of discontent.

 

[Burma Bill]

Quote:-

"Whatever can be sacrificed must be sacrificed,” said Mr. Sumet"

I hope this does not include aircraft maintenance!

 

[nong38]

Whatever they being paid and claiming is allowances its just a drop in the ocean compared to the loses the national carrier is showing. The people running the show don't seem to be up the job, in a private company they would be out on their ear.

[buanmeerugsaa]

4 hours ago, Oztruckie said:

Be very interesting to know what remuneration some of these fatcats are recieving,I'm sure they'd be in the seven digit numbers no doubt.

No transparency, no accountability. 

Yet again. 

Until the opaque veil is lifted from all government activities nothing, I repeat nothing, can ever improve. 

[Nowisee]

5 hours ago, smedly said:

how about investigating their wealth and make them pay it back to the people

Is there one competent forensic accountant in this country that can't be bought or paid off?

 

[heybuz]

Be like asking,"Alibabas men "not not to thieve.

[PommieOz]

At least one manufacturing company in Rayong have advised employees that all salaries will be reduced to 75% in October onwards to avoid layoffs. Apparently the high Baht is affecting exports. 

[Youlike]

5 hours ago, kotsak said:

This will go down very well with their mia noi.

Sure it will, big chance that mia noi is also an employee under the big chief....she'll be happy that he didn't cut her salary.

[BoganInParasite]

2 hours ago, owenm said:

Many major international airlines have experienced major financial hurdles, including QANTAS, Australia's major airline..

 

The CEO cut his own salary and perks by about 50%, as well as cutting meat to the bone to reduce operational costs, cutting back on overtime, reducing management staff and paying bonuses, retiring older poor fuel efficient aircraft, leasing newer aircraft with better fuel efficiency.. Cutting back or culling unprofitable routes.. QANTAS was on the verge of bankruptcy, but by turning it around it is now quite profitable again, without having reliance on government handouts. But with sensible management decisions to rebuild the brand and go from operating in the red for several years, back into the black again..

 

If Thai cannot see the writing on the wall by now and make major decisions to restructure their major national carrier, it will disappear like the Abyss.. 

With respect owenm, if you are referring to QANTAS under the current CEO Joyce, it has never been on the verge of bankruptcy. There was a short period where Joyce and the Board went hysterical including demanding billions in a loan from the Federal Government and the operational shutdown was a calculated tactic by them to engineer an industrial outcome, it failed by the way. I'm a ten year QANTAS past employee and 25 years in the aviation industry so I know what I'm talking about. In anything other the low IQ country it is domiciled, THAI would be sold off out of government ownership or let fail. Not going to happen here though.

[Oziex1]

I find Thai very convenient on the Perth to BKK  run, with this strife going on I might have to reconsider as I have concerns on the sacrifices to be made as I'm sure the executives wont be sacrificing a satang.

[Classic Ray]

I see many Air Force staff on the board and maybe in other positions too.

 

Do they receive a salary from the Air Force as well as the airline? If so, why?

 

And running a private sector airline is very different from the Air Force, so how are they qualified to do that?

[csmith]

Good luck with that .....

[MRToMRT]

2 months ago I flew to Paris via London business class. Quote by Thai was 187,000 baht (LON-PAR on BA), BA 123,000, EVA 97,000 (LON-PAR on AF). 

 

And on Thai very very restricted dates because most days BKK-LON was full. Nobody is paying those prices and yet the plane is full regularly. Thats the problem, most of the custom is on a "special deal". 

[tomazbodner]

3 minutes ago, MRToMRT said:

2 months ago I flew to Paris via London business class. Quote by Thai was 187,000 baht (LON-PAR on BA), BA 123,000, EVA 97,000 (LON-PAR on AF). 

 

And on Thai very very restricted dates because most days BKK-LON was full. Nobody is paying those prices and yet the plane is full regularly. Thats the problem, most of the custom is on a "special deal". 

It's not just special deal but a free deal. And now try to think of one big shot with his entire extended family. That's all the seats in first class and half of business class freeloading. And the only head of TG that had the guts to stop this a few years back, despite bringing TG into PROFIT, was promptly sacked and replaced by another obedient slave. We can hope anything would change but we both know it won't.

 

I need to book a ticket to Europe shortly. And I'm looking at the TG saga... and thinking whether I should risk. Or just book with airline that would still be around 2 months later and at least refund my ticket if flight gets cancelled. This drama can't be good for their business. So I truly hope their management does something about it, and quickly.

[Fred white]

7 hours ago, smedly said:

how about investigating their wealth and make them pay it back to the people

They are talking about the airline of course when I read the headline I thought they were talking about people

[bowerboy]

I am booked in First Class to Frankfurt on the A380 in September for just 90K points. Crazy good deal and happy to get that but for sure you would never get that on any other airline. And equally certain that no one in their right mind that is a frequent flyer would ever dream of paying to fly Business or First on Thai.

 

Every other Airlines A380 has a shower in the toilet in First. But of course Thai left that out in their case. Also no bar area. Typical Thailand really.

[Fred white]

4 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

I saw the story of SIA... and upon handing over establishment capital, government told them up-front that this was first and last financial injection. Other airlines see the state as a handy ATM with no limit...

Kind of like an rfd????

[watcharacters]

7 hours ago, DrTuner said:

The corporate structure of THAI must be extremely complex so I wonder if they even know who is supposed to do what and be paid for what.

 

That probably about clears it up.

 

 

[nahkit]

This from an airline that last week announced that they had repainted their fleet for no sound commercial reason.

[Anythingleft?]

Just another to add to the growing list of ridicule in Thailand

Have a feeling Thailand is on the verge of a major comeuppance.........

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[Fex Bluse]

16 hours ago, kotsak said:

This will go down very well with their mia noi.

Yeah, lots of free condo units will be available soon when the sugar daddies stop paying the mia condo payments.

[Sydebolle]

"to cut their meeting allowances and remuneration voluntarily" is the wrong answer.

 

The right answer would be to "cut the middle and upper management staff and hire professionals outside the system against profit sharing schedules".

I like the "meeting allowances" though - wonders never seize .........