THAI Airways International’s (THAI) performance has stabilised after a rocky start to the year, Suraphon Israngura na Ayuthya, executive vice president of commercial, said at yesterday’s IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific’s press conference.
Fielding questions from the media, Suraphon said: “We planned our cashflow at the end of last year before we were affected by the political situation.” He added that the airline is retiring older aircraft and replacing them with new Airbus A380s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
The strongest recovery is coming from markets along its western route. Southern China and Hong Kong have improved significantly, though the market in Shanghai is still soft.
Faced with intense competition from the Gulf carriers for longhaul business, Suraphon admitted he was exasperated by a new partnership between Etihad Airways and Tourism Authority of Thailand to tap the Italian market, and threatened to recall his senior executives from Rome and Milan if they could not rectify the situation.
The airline is also trying to increase its thrice-weekly flights to the US, which currently transits in Seoul, to daily. “The problem is Seoul will not give us any more timeslots. Next year we may start daily flights transiting through Taipei to Los Angeles and maybe another to Honolulu.”
With full-service, ‘premium light’ subsidiary THAI Smile, Suraphon said: “We are trying to manage our costs so we can better compete with LCCs.”
Watch our IT&CMA Video Daily and read our print stories in IT&CMA Show Daily
