Thai Airways International (THAI) told its union this week that only 5 per cent of its employees will be let go under the airline’s new rehabilitation plan.
The flagship carrier currently hires around 20,000 employees. Of that, about 1,000 are pilots and about 7,000 are cabin crew — much more than required to operate its fleet of 84 aircrafts.
The company has in May filed for rehabilitation with the Central Bankruptcy Court with a massive debt of 244 billion baht.
Nares Peung-yaem, Thai Union’s president, told local news that the representatives of the employees and from the union met with Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, THAI’s board member, on Tuesday.
Pirapan has reassured them that only 5 per cent, or around 1,000 employees, will be let go from the previous target of 30 per cent, according to Nares.
“The employees were happy to hear that,” he said.
“[Pirapan] said there is not a plan to let go as many as 30 per cent of the employees, while redeployment will be applied instead,” Nares added.
The corruption problems within the airline will also be taken care, according to Pirapan, also insisting that members of the management team, if found to be guilty, will be punished and face prison term.
He said the problem of double payment for wages of some members of the management team will be fixed.
All Thai Airways are still grounded until August 1.
The carrier is now carrying a deficit of about 80 billion baht as of June and the five months of no flying is estimated to cost the airline around 77.5 billion baht in loss of income.
The airline now owe about 18 billion baht in advance ticket sales but the refund process has been put on hold since the carrier entered its rehabilitation plan to the court.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) also projected that passenger numbers in 2021 will drop 21 per cent when compared to pre-COVID-19 numbers.
