Thai Airways reports profitable Q4, driven by Chinese visitor surge

[webfact]

 

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) announced a profitable fourth quarter, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of profits, underpinned by a steady recovery in passenger numbers amid the Covid-19 era. The growth has been particularly driven by a surge in visitors from China.

 

Thai Airways recorded a net income of 1.54 billion baht (US$43 million) for the quarter ending in September, marking a significant turnaround from the loss of 4.79 billion baht experienced during the same period last year, according to their recent exchange filing.

 

The data reveals that passenger numbers have risen to 3.27 million, an increase of 22% from last year’s corresponding quarter. This period was when Thailand had just begun to lift Covid-related travel restrictions. Notably, despite the low tourist season, the influx of visitors from China saw an impressive 13% increase from the last quarter, reaching 1.05 million.

 

by Alex Morgan

Photo: Stefan Wirtz/Flickr

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2023-11-10

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

The growth has been particularly driven by a surge in visitors from China.

I can smell something iffy.

[Cake Monster]

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

I can smell something iffy.

Thai certainly have a very high opinion of themselves for a bankrupt Company

They even told Rolls Royce they dont like their pricing any more

 

 

[Sydebolle]

Well, yet another lie in big capital letters might be more to the truth. 

50+ jets of Thai Airways International are parked all over the Kingdom's airports, Suvannaphoum and U-Tapao to come first. Having had a debt load of THB 300+ billion and pretty empty planes on an above-market tariff structure .........

Well done, boys, keep up the good work. The next thing we will hear is to let Thai Smile go down the abyss and take all those nasty debts along.

It is more than evident that it is pure management inability which has plagued this previously most profitable star on Asia's aviation skies. Ever since 1992, once the Air Force and the finance ministry invited the former professional management to "retire" or to "resign", things went South. 

Overheard the possibly best explanation on Thai Airways being compared to a 7/11 store where there is no cashier on the way out, i.e. everybody helped themselves and just walked away. Remember the little stint on the Rolls Royce engines - never ever heard anything from that seriously expensive corner either ;-) 

[Pouatchee]

not too long ago they werent coming because of a scary movie, next it was the shootong in bkk... now there is a chinese visitor surge?

[madmitch]

Q4 hasn't finished yet! I think they must be confused with four consecutive profitable quarters. 

[MrPancake]

Chinese tourists are coming,

but they ain't coming,

but they are,

yet they ain't.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by MrPancake

[ExpatOilWorker]

6 hours ago, Sydebolle said:

Well, yet another lie in big capital letters might be more to the truth. 

50+ jets of Thai Airways International are parked all over the Kingdom's airports, Suvannaphoum and U-Tapao to come first. Having had a debt load of THB 300+ billion and pretty empty planes on an above-market tariff structure .........

Well done, boys, keep up the good work. The next thing we will hear is to let Thai Smile go down the abyss and take all those nasty debts along.

It is more than evident that it is pure management inability which has plagued this previously most profitable star on Asia's aviation skies. Ever since 1992, once the Air Force and the finance ministry invited the former professional management to "retire" or to "resign", things went South. 

Overheard the possibly best explanation on Thai Airways being compared to a 7/11 store where there is no cashier on the way out, i.e. everybody helped themselves and just walked away. Remember the little stint on the Rolls Royce engines - never ever heard anything from that seriously expensive corner either ;-) 

They are flying way fewer planes than they used to, but fairly good result for this Q3 (not Q4).

The only thing that sticks out, is maintenance cost. Nearly half of what it was in Q2.

 

[matador007]

I sometimes watch the flights to/from BKK airport on FlightRadar24 or RadarBox, pretty cool sites.

If you are up early (5-7am or so), you can see the Thair Airways flights coming in.

They come from various places, but are lined up back to back (synchronized) coming in.  Obviously I cant speak for the Profitability and Airline business, but to me, thats a good sign that its not just random Thai Airways flights coming in.

That has to be a purposely thought out scheduling.  So that to me shows TA is doing something to keep costs down.  Obviously to have Check-in, welcome Gate, Baggage people all working continously and not stop-start (inefficient).

 

So to hear them making money, is just reward for being pro-active and working to optimize Flights.  Its a different world now with the technology out there.

There are even specialized Apps of the ones we use, like Waze, TomTom and such.. that UPS and Delivery Companies are using tweaking delivery drops to where fewer Left/Right turns (depending on Country) are done.

 

Also, many top routes of BKK are Domestic, so TA will benefit as those tend to be pretty profitable for a lot of Airlines.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airports/bkk

 

Wish them continued success.

[still kicking]

They could triple the amount if they would just reinstall flights to some Australian cities 

[Sydebolle]

On 11/11/2023 at 4:53 PM, ExpatOilWorker said:

They are flying way fewer planes than they used to, but fairly good result for this Q3 (not Q4).

The only thing that sticks out, is maintenance cost. Nearly half of what it was in Q2.

 

You're aware that Thailand is the perfect place to cook your books; every expat working here (or having worked here) knows that. My company's auditor (above figures are apparently not audited yet - although that does not make a difference with TG) always asked me ahead, how much profit I want to show. If you run a Farang-managed company, you are well advised to show a profit each and every year, irrespective of your actual result. Showing a loss wakes up the revenue department which will turn your entire accounting upside down and downside up again and usually walks away after having received a "little gift". In my case it was a yearly refrigerator for the office and my contribution alone was 4 fridges - your call! 

Those planes parked longterm in Bangkok and U-Tapao (possibly on other airports as well) cost money each and every minute they stand around; minimizing losses or operate profitable for an airline includes their fleet being airborne as long as possible; see all those LCC (low cost carriers); some of them keep their equipment airborne for 14 to 15 hours daily despite operating mostly locally or regionally - i.e. hardly any long distances on an intercontinental network.