Thai Airways chose New CEO amidst financial loss

[S V Choong 4]

泰國航空選新總裁紓虧損

2006/04/18, 週二

 

 

泰國航空公司(Thai Airways)今天將選出新總裁，其當前急務是紓解高油價造成虧損。若不成功，將面臨撤換厄運。

 

截至2005年6月第二季，泰航創下單季高達47.8億泰銖(1.17億美元）虧損後，同年8月解除總裁卡諾克職務，至今仍懸而未決。

 

泰航發言人表示，董事會將在18日召開最後一次會議，從四位高層甄選一人任新總裁，但不一定同日宣佈結果。

 

分析師認為新總裁須處理高價燃油問題，因油料是泰航最大挑戰，佔營運燃料成本三成至四成。截至05年12月底最後一季，燃油使泰航淨利潤銳減33.36%。另一個燙手山竽是東南亞市場的低價機票競爭劇烈，泰航難以招架，市場拭目以待新總裁如何扭轉劣勢。

 

http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=...15380&Itemid=39

 

 

My apologies for non-Chinese readers. As I do not habitually reads news in English, I don't know where to find the English version for this. If you stumble across the English version, please copy the link so people can read it in English to get more detail.

 

Basically the article said that TG lost record high of USD $117 million in the second quarter of 2005 due to rising price in fuel. It is hoping that Thai today will announce a new CEO to head the airline from August 2006, but there is no guarantee for the announcement. The new CEO will need to sort out the rising fuel price which caused TG to make such a huge loss. (Similar situation to MH, I suppose).

Edited April 18, 2006 by S V Choong

[Seth K 3]

Thai Airways to pick new boss amid oil, competition pressure

 

 

BANGKOK (AFP) - Flag carrier Thai Airways International was set to pick a new president amid pressure from soaring global oil prices and cut-throat competition from low-budget airlines.

 

Thai Airways has been hunting for the new chief since August last year when it suspended Kanok Abhiradee after incurring its worst-ever quarterly loss totalling 4.78 billion baht (117 million dollars) in the three months to June in 2005.

 

The company said it would pick the new president from four internal candidates at Tuesday's board meeting.

 

"Tuesday's meeting is the last meeting for selecting the new president," said Thai Airways spokeswoman Sompradtana Prakobsantisuk, but warned the board may not announce its decision immediately.

 

Analysts said the new boss must quickly tackle pressing problems of high oil prices and intense competition from low-cost rivals in the regional market.

 

"Oil is the biggest challenge for the company. About 30 to 40 percent of the company's operational costs is oil," said Sukbir Khanijoh, an economist at Trinity Securities.

 

On Monday, oil prices surged above 71 dollars a barrel amid concerns over tight US gasoline stocks and continued fears the United States could launch military strikes against Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil producer.

 

Soaring fuel prices slashed Thai Airways' net profit by 33.36 percent to 3.81 billion baht (96.79 million dollars) in the three months to December.

 

Apart from oil, Choosak Ratanachaichan, an economist at Kasikorn Research Center, said Thai Airways was facing tough competition from low-budget airlines in the Southeast Asian market.

 

"Like any other airline, severe competition from low-cost carriers has affected Thai Airways. They are eating up the market share of traditional airlines," Choosak said.

 

In Thailand, Thai Airways faces competition from Thai AirAsia, a Thai unit of Malaysia's budget airline AirAsia, and from Singapore budget carrier Tiger Airways in the regional market.

 

"Competition is another biggest challenge for Thai Airways. We are seeing very, very tough competition. The number of routes, particularly within the region, has been taken over by low-cost airlines," Trinity's Sukbir said.

 

Sukbir added the Thai national carrier was also saddled with internal management problems.

 

"One of the biggest problems of Thai Airways is that there is a lot of political interference," he said, pointing out that the finance ministry is the airline's biggest shareholder with a 54.21-percent stake.

 

"As the biggest shareholder, they are always trying to have a say over policy. Whether purchasing new fleet or making new investment, there's been always political interference, causing a delay in the decision-making."

 

While searching for the new president, Thai Airways has asked Somchainuk Engtrakul, a former permanent secretary of the finance ministry, to take charge as acting president.

 

Because of government's meddling, Thai Airways has lagged behind regional rivals such as Singapore Airlines and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways in the area of acquiring new aircraft, Sukbir said.

 

But the analyst said the government was unlikely to reduce its ownership of Thai Airways due to the current political climate in Bangkok.

 

"People are strongly against the government's selling of state enterprises," Sukbir said, referring to anti-privatization groups which had joined street protests that had pushed Thaksin Shinawatra out of office in early April.

 

They are opposed to the outgoing prime minister's privatization drive and lobbied against the government's plan to partially privatize the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), Thailand's largest state enterprise.

 

A Thai court in March ruled against the privatization of EGAT, saying the energy giant's planned initial public offering would be politically influenced.

 

"The climate for privatizing Thai Airways is not favorable right now," Sukbir said.

 

Not exactly the same, but here is the english version. Even Thai airways said AirAsia is a trouble maker 4 them

[Bing Chu 0]

Deja Vu !! Again blame on "soaring global oil prices" - same old scapegoat !

[YiHao 0]

In Thai have so many airliners and LCC, compare to Malaysia only have 2 major carrier. But MH loss is unbelieveble!