THAI hopes to exit rehabilitation plan in Q3 next year, expects THB20 bn earnings

THAI CEO Chai Eamsiri told Thansettakij that THAI and its Thai Smiles subsidiary had seen improved business performance during the first five months of this year and have had up to 82.2% cabin factor at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport compared to other airlines.

Chai added that THAI has also been progressing well in its rehabilitation plan as well as the plan to convert debt to equity and to dissolve Thai Smiles and restructure the entire organisation.

With all of these positive signs in business operations and progress in rehabilitation, Chai said he was confident the national flag carrier would be able to exit rehabilitation by the third quarter of next year.

He expressed confidence that THAI would meet the requirements for resuming trading in the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

Chai said THAI would definitely earn more than 20 billion baht in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation in the 12-month period before it could report to the bankruptcy court to exit the rehabilitation programme.

He said THAI’s business performance has been on the uptrend from January to May this year with THAI and Thai Smiles capturing 28.6% market share among 111 international airlines that flew to and from Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Chai added that THAI enjoyed cabin factor of 82%, which was higher than the average cabin factor of airlines in the Asia-Pacific. THAI was ranked seventh in the Asia-Pacific region as the airlines with the highest cabin factor, he said.

The CEO said THAI aimed to increase its market share to 35-45% in the near future, compared to 37.1% before the Covid pandemic.

As part of the reorganisation, THAI will dissolve Thai Smiles and transfer 20 Airbus A320-200 planes and personnel from Thai Smiles back by February next year.

Currently, THAI has 47 planes in operation and it will add 20 planes to its fleet from Thai Smiles.

It is also seeking to rent 11 A350-900 planes. So far, two of them have been delivered and nine more will be delivered soon, Chai added.

He said THAI would gradually expand its destinations in accordance to the planes it has received. Currently, it is flying to 57 destinations in 19 countries.

Before entering the rehabilitation programme, THAI had some 30,000 staff, including outsourcing flight attendants but last year the number stood at 15,000 staff.

Chai said THAI recently recruited 500 more flight attendants, who would start flying this year. Its number of pilots has dropped from 1,400 before Covid to 900 now.

By the end of this year, THAI would recruit 2,000 more staff and gradually recruit more to meet the target of 19,500, including outsourced staff, by 2025, Chai said.