The Finance Ministry is considering allowing its majority shareholding in Thai Airways International to fall in order to change its current status as a state enterprise. The SET-listed national carrier is currently 50.1% held by the ministry, and as such must comply with state enterprise regulations. The carrier also has the right to ask the ministry to guarantee its loans, helping THAI reduce its funding costs by leveraging the credit of the government.

Thai Airways International is seeking Bt10b to add 81 new aircraft over 15 years, thereby reducing maintenance costs and improving the fleet in line with travel demand on each route. “The aircraft acquisition plan will take place in parallel with the capital increase. THAI is asking the Finance Ministry to inject Bt10b to maintain its 51.03% stake,” Transport Minister Sophon Saram said yesterday.

Thai Airways International (THAI) has decided to drop three under-performing regional routes but will reinstate services to Johannesburg starting from May. The routes that will be axed for the summer season starting in late March are Bangkok-Kuwait, Hong Kong-Taipei and Bangkok-Manila-Osaka. Pruet Boobphakam, THAI’s executive vice-president for commercial affairs,said the routes were being dropped to shift limited capacity to higher-demand routes.

Thai Airways International aims to become one of the world’s most exclusive airlines within the next two years. THAI president Piyasvasti Amranand said he was confident that the flag carrier could attain a five-star rating from Skytrax, a UK-based research firmwhich polls passengers worldwide on the quality of airlines.

The European Union’s carbon tax could cost Thai Airways International Bt500m a year for its flights entering the continent from 2012, and passengers will bear the burden. THAI president Piyasvasti Amranand gave the estimate as the flag carrier begins to assess the consequences, particularly on operating costs, of the EU’s green levies on aviation.

Thai Airways International is aiming for a 20% revenue increase and a pretax profit of Bt4.3b next year. THAI’s board and management adopted the new target as part of its five-year strategic plan to end the flag carrier’s financial woes and put it back on track as a leading global airline. Next year, the airline targets revenues of Bt193b, a 20.7% rise over this year’s expected total of Bt153b. A target of Bt32b was set for next year’s pre-tax earnings.

Thai Airways International’s new chief yesterday pledged to get the flag carrier,on the brink of financial disaster about a year ago, back on its feet over the next two years before helping it regain its past glory as a top-rated global airline in the following two years. Piyasvasti Amranand outlined his strategic plan on his first day as president of THAI amid expectations that the energy technocrat could be a saviour for the airline, which has been plagued by a mountain of problems including allegations of both inefficiency and corruption. (Bangkok Post)

National carrier THAI reported that its passenger traffic, measured by revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) slipped 7.56% YoY in Jul-Aug 2009. Its cabin factor averaged 73.7% in the first two months of 3Q09, down from the year-ago level of 76.1%. Cargo traffic, measured by revenue ton kilometers (RTK) dropped 12.59% YoY in Jul-Aug 2009. Its freight factor averaged 51.5% in the first two months of 3Q09, down from the year-ago level of 56.2%. The pace of declines in passenger and cargo traffic moderated significantly from a contraction of 21.5% and 27.4% in 1H09, pointing to signs of recovery.