BREAKING NEWS: Thai Airways sacks its President

[JuliusWong 0]

May 21, 2012

 

The board of Thai Airways sacked its president because of disagreements over strategy, a move that could derail the flag carrier's attempts to return to profit and which is being questioned by its union.

 

Piyasvasti Amranand, a former energy minister, became president in October 2009 when the opposition Democrat party was in power. He has shaken up the airline and launched cost-cutting measures, including reductions in the salaries of senior executives. Thai Airways is 51 percent owned by the Finance Ministry.

 

Chokchai Panyayong, vice president in charge of strategy and business development, has been appointed acting president, the airline's chairman, Ampon Kittiampon, told reporters on Monday.

 

"The board has agreed to terminate the president's contract because he cannot work in unity with the strategy committee," Ampon said.

 

Jamsri Sukchotirat, chairwoman of the airline's union, said she would ask the board for an explanation.

 

"The board has to clarify the decision because he met key performance targets, the airline's operations have improved and he has no problem working with employees," Jamsri said.

 

Attempts to reach Piyasvasti for comment were unsuccessful.

 

Piyasvasti, 59, said in an interview on Friday he was confident Thai Airways would achieve its target of a THB6 billion baht (USD$191 million) profit this year.

 

Thai Airways faces increasing regional competition from bigger rivals such as Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways and made a January-March net profit of THB3.6 billion baht, up almost 500 percent from a year earlier.

 

That marks a turnaround from a net loss of THB5.4 billion baht in the fourth quarter when the airline was hit by severe floods that devastated the Thai economy and took its toll on tourism.

(Reuters)

 

Source:

http://news.airwise....1337603479.html

[Sharil Abdul Rahman 0]

sounds familiar here...

[Mike P 0]

sounds familiar here...

 

Sounds familiar the threat was never coming from Malaysia Airlines...

[V Wong 0]

Sounds familiar the threat was never coming from Malaysia Airlines...

 

agreed - sound familiar that no high official in MH will get sacked as such. Either promoted to better paying job within Khazanah or 'amicable' separation (ala Enrich head)..

Edited May 22, 2012 by V Wong

[CV Thian 0]

22 May 2012

THAI president hits back after being dumped

 

Thai Airways International has fired Piyasvasti Amranand as president of the national carrier.

 

Board chairman Ampon Kittiampon said the reason it discharged Piyasvasti was his lack of ''unity in communication'' with the board and failure to push ahead some of the airline's projects.

 

Piyasvasti, quoted by local media, said the board had the right to end his employment "but it must explain why clearly to the public".

 

He said it was also possible that his firing resulted from someone who wanted his position, from his investigations into graft at THAI, and from his punishment of corrupt THAI staff "who might have sought help from some powerful figures".

 

He pointed out that he had brought THAI back from a loss of more than 20 billion baht to profits in two years.

 

Piyasvasti said that in his two years and seven months in office, he had organised a huge aircraft acquisition programme to improve the airline that had suffered from old planes.

 

http://www.travelmol...news_id=2001549

Edited May 22, 2012 by Chow Vi Thian

[JuliusWong 0]

First of what is possible to be string of bad news is here.......

 

Thai Air Says It May Miss Profit Targets

 

May 25, 2012

 

Thai Airways' profit target of THB6 billion baht (USD$189 million) may not be achieved because of strong competition, acting president Chokchai Panyayong told reporters.

 

The statement follows the airline's sacking of its previous president Piyasvasti Amranand earlier this week.

 

Amranand had said the company was on profit to attain its net profit target.

(Reuters)

 

Source:

http://news.airwise....1337952878.html

Edited May 26, 2012 by JuliusWong

[Cire 0]

When the airline starts to make profit, generally the board will start to ask the same "unity" question - when can they get back their salary to status quo if not increment to it..

So when this is not so forth-coming, plans will be afloat to oppress whatever decision the President have, so much so that it is deemed as being not in strategy alignment with the general committee.

It sounds all too familiar with "mafia-likeness" control of airlines be it MAS, Thai or even BI. At the end of the day, its about how much one gets.