วันอาทิตย์, พฤษภาคม 31, 2563

ข่าว"การบินไทย" ป่วยหนัก ในสื่อนอก - Thai Airways: pandemic delivers final blow to mismanaged carrier



BANGKOK -- These days, Bangkok's normally bustling main international airport feels like a museum dedicated to displaying Boeing and Airbus jets owned by Thai Airways International, with the national flag carrier's fleet largely grounded as the novel coronavirus pandemic paralyzes global air travel.

The mixed collection of Boeing 747-400s, Airbus A330s, Boeing 787-9s and Airbus A380s sitting silently on the tarmac or inside hangars at Suvarnabhumi Airport might appeal to aviation enthusiasts and photographers looking for a rare and dramatic shot. But the inertness of the fleet highlights not just the impact of COVID-19 but the airline's decades of financial inefficiency.

"Thai Airways troubles started in the 1990s when it decided to diversify and buy every type of plane that was being manufactured," said an airline industry insider in Thailand. Different models have different specs using different engines, the person told the Nikkei Asian Review, forcing the airline to train an army of engineers to keep the General Electric and Rolls-Royce engines flightworthy, inflating maintenance costs.

The inefficiency manifest at Suvarnabhumi is just one part of a history of mismanagement, corruption, and political interference that has now plunged the airline into overhaul proceedings. The kingdom's Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday accepted a petition from Thai, as the airline is commonly known, for rehabilitation under the court's supervision, with the first hearing scheduled for August.

A source in the Prime Minister's Office said that the coronavirus is what exposed Thai's underlying corporate culture and financial weaknesses. But for aviation analysts, the airline becoming the first national flag carrier in the world to go through legal rehabilitation was no surprise. The pandemic was simply the last straw that ultimately broke its wings.

CreditRiskMonitor, a New York-based credit research company, on March 11 named Thai along with Virgin Australia Holdings, Sweden-based SAS and Malaysia's AirAsia X as airlines with a risk of bankruptcy 10 to 50 times greater than the average public company. Of those, Virgin Australia entered voluntary administration -- equivalent to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. -- ahead of Thai.


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