Thai Airways International Board Of Directors Sets Talks With New President

[webfact]

THAI board sets talks with new president

BAMRUNG AMNATCHAROENRIT

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Thai Airways International's board of directors will meet with the company's new president Sorajak Kasemsuwan next Friday to discuss how to maintain the national carrier as one of the world's leading airlines.

One of the first priorities will be its financial direction, after THAI suffered a Bt10.2-billion loss last year.

Board chairman Ampon Kittiampon said yesterday after a board meeting that the directors had agreed to hire Sorajak as the new president, replacing Piyasvasti Amranand, who was fired in June. Sorajak will be officially informed on Monday, when the agreement will be signed. He will start working the next day.

Ampon declined to disclose the new president's salary, saying it was confidential. Piyasvasti's last salary, before his employment contract was prematurely terminated, was Bt990,000 per month.

Ampon declined to disclose the new president's salary, saying it was confidential. Next month, Sorajak will be informed about the company's financial performance, especially in the first quarter, when its results were below projections. His performance will be judged over the next eight or nine months.

Ampon said he accepted that the aviation industry was having a rough time with fluctuating fuel prices and fiercer competition, but THAI has a new Airbus A380 superjumbo with 507 seats as a competitive advantage to lure passengers.

"The new president will have to manage risks and also maintain the service standard of THAI at the same time,'' Ampon said.

He will have to follow the company's strategy and also state-enterprise plans, especially concerning good governance.

He will be responsible for decentralising the company's management. The board will not be involved in changes in employees' positions, except for that of executive vice president.

The new president will also be responsible for promoting green innovation. Currently, THAI is internationally recognised as helping to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

-- The Nation 2012-10-06

[Dr Robert]

Thai Airways is an iconic institution and plays an enormously important role in the projection of a positive Thai image into the global tourist and business market. It needs all the acumen and the best brains it can muster to maintain its viability and to prosper and to thrive. It is in the best interests of the nation that the new president is provided with good advice, adequate resources and that his transition to this most important of non-politcal, high profile positions goes smoothly.

I for one (not a Thai employee or shareholder) wish them all good luck in this dire financial climate.

[ricardofel]

Thai will continue on it's incompetent course of action with high prices, old planes and fewer and fewer passengers. I for one have not flown them in years and never will!

[Thai at Heart]

to discuss how to maintain the national carrier as one of the world's leading airlines.

I think realising that they aren't even one of the leading airlines in Asia anymore is a start.

[geriatrickid]

to discuss how to maintain the national carrier as one of the world's leading airlines.

I think realising that they aren't even one of the leading airlines in Asia anymore is a start.

Considering that asia has the largest concentration of 5 star airlines (Singapore, Cathay, Malaysia, Hainan, and Asiana), how can Thai be considered "leading"? TG has benefited from a monopolistic market that has always favoured TG with preferred landing & takeoff slots, yet it has been unable to successfully compete in the international market against airlines with higher labour costs such as Cathay, Singapore and Asiana. TG has tried to hold itself out as a "premium" airline, but it has neither the equipment, the catering, nor the personnel to support that positioning. Thailand's poor quality airports don't help matters either. It is much easier to be a 5 star airline when flying out of a some of the world's best airports (ICN, SIN & HKG).

[Ricardo]

Is your airline struggling to survive, aging equipment & prices un-competitive, no worries !

Cue more cancellations/delays, of orders for new/leased-planes, and further price-rises !

Then switch most of the domestic feeder-airlines back to Don Muang, to attempt to force over-laden long-haul connecting-passengers onto TG from Swampy, for their internal-flights.

If that doesn't work (it hasn't) then appoint yet another new President (of the airline, I hasten to add), and give him a couple of years more, to show what he can do !

Meanwhile I (and many others, I suspect) will continue to fly on far-newer planes with much-cheaper airlines, and TG will continue to flounder.

It ought to be near-impossible, for the flag-carrier of a major tourist-destination country like Thailand, to fail like this ... but Thai Airways will continue to show how to do it !

[asiawatcher]

to discuss how to maintain the national carrier as one of the world's leading airlines.

I think realising that they aren't even one of the leading airlines in Asia anymore is a start.

You beat me to it. They are old, tired, shitty service and overpriced. I gave up flying Thai years ago.

[madmitch]

"Ampon said he accepted that the aviation industry was having a rough time with fluctuating fuel prices and fiercer competition, but THAI has a new Airbus A380 superjumbo with 507 seats as a competitive advantage to lure passengers."

Perhaps he hasn't noticed that several competitors have been running A380s for some time and Thai are lagging behind. It's also cheaper to fly to London with Malaysian Airlines on a new A380 than it is with Thai on an old 747.

[trainman34014]

Should be a fun meeting....'Hello Boss, how many free seats can we have on the new A380? I've already got requests from my extended family of 47 plus my gambling partners, Mia Noi,...and her extended family of 35. What? oh, you want to talk about the future of the national carrier, well, can that wait until we have sorted the free seat thing and then had a three hour lunch with copious amounts of good French and Italian wines?

[comserve]

Thai will continue on it's incompetent course of action with high prices, old planes and fewer and fewer passengers. I for one have not flown them in years and never will!

Why does everyone need to be so negative? If you investigate, Thai does have very competitive air fares!

They are the only one that is upfront with their fares though! ie with Thai you do not get to the end of the booking process and then get told that the fare has been more than doubled because they suddenly add on extras for fuel, landing fees, and everything else that the others hide from you.

Have another look at the REAL situation. I will continue to use them and I applaud their business ethics.

Look at JetStar for instance. I am an Australian but would not EVER fly with JetStar because their advertising is fraudulent and their service is CRAP!

[WhizBang]

Why does everyone need to be so negative? If you investigate, Thai does have very competitive air fares!

Since when? Remember when they had a direct flight from Bangkok to New York? Well I do. Back then I was making 2 or 3 trips a year back and forth to the USA east coast. So I thought good deal, one less flight to deal with and it should save me a couple hours flight time too.

For exactly the same seats, Thai air wanted DOUBLE what I was paying with Northwest. Guess what. I continued to fly NW.

Competitive my ass.

[oldsailor35]

I think that TRAINMAN has "hit the nail on the head"

This new guy has to stop all "freebies" immediately, this might mean that Thai Air will loose half their passengers straight away, but just as long as they get on with catering for and doing something to attract PAYING passengers, they will come good once again.

Here's wishing Thai Air good luck.

[yoshiwara]

Thai Airways is an iconic institution and plays an enormously important role in the projection of a positive Thai image into the global tourist and business market. It needs all the acumen and the best brains it can muster to maintain its viability and to prosper and to thrive. It is in the best interests of the nation that the new president is provided with good advice, adequate resources and that his transition to this most important of non-politcal, high profile positions goes smoothly.

I for one (not a Thai employee or shareholder) wish them all good luck in this dire financial climate.

That is pure dreamland when one considers why the previous CEO was removed.

I am one of the multitude of previous regular users of Thai Air (I still have ny FF card) who gave up on 2 counts. First, the abject refusal to update the ents system and secondly the ludicrous pricing policy of seat sales. The one thing that Thai did have on the 747s was the 34" seat pitch.

So now they have the A380s (contracts for which they would probably rather not have completed). The pricing policy will be horribly exposed if not changed.

Now that airlines such as Emirates are in the game and know exactly how to play, Thai's toy-town strategies imposed by a State controlling vote will inevitably drag it down.

This will end in tears.

[Rancid]

All government businesses lose money, after all their CEOs are always useless political hacks, their workforces think they are employed for life by managers that couldn't care less anyway. What is the worst outcome for poor performance, an inactice post on full pay. As such I am impressed to see Thai only lost 10.2 billion baht, loose change compared to the new infrastructure free- for-all, it is a triumphant result, I was expecting far worse. Perhaps Thai ought to invoke Wall St strategies, always leak a number twice as bad as the reality, then they can claim that they vastly exceeded market expectations.