According to local media, some execs at Thai Airways are fearing to see foreign consultants come to help Thai Airways… as they might leak information to the competition.
This story could generate a smile if Thai Airways International was not in such a dire financial situation. Looking at recent data about the financial positions of Southeast Asian major carriers by CAPA (Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation), Thai Airways International had the worst financial performance of any ASEAN state carrier, losing US$523 million last year. This represented 57% of the total of accumulated losses for 17 carriers in Southeast Asia.
While Thai Airways’ President Charamporn Jotikasthira is trying to fix the multiple problems that the carrier faces – from ageing aircraft to an overstaffed administration, as well as the absence of a sales strategy – the President is now under fire by former Thai airline executives who explain about the sticky situation in the President’s hiring of the foreign consultant firm, Bain & Company, to fix the airline’s woes.
According to the Bangkok Post, some former executives expressed their worries about the cancellation of some routes. But above that, they expressed their high concern about the fact that a Bain & Company executive worked before for Temasek Holdings in Singapore, which owns Singapore Airlines. They expressed concerns about possible leaks to due to the affiliation. Looking at Singapore Airlines, which last year managed to write off a profit of US$166 million, it is true that the half billion dollars of losses at Thai Airways International is a model to follow. The collusion between the political world and Thai Airways is also certainly a model that Singapore Airlines would love to know the secret of.
The Temasek argument has been used in the past to let a project go down the drain. When Thai Airways associated with Tiger Air from Singapore to create a new low-cost carrier Tiger Air Thailand, some government officials and members of the Board of Directors denounced “the selling of the airline” to competitor Temasek.
The next complaint may be about the fact that Thai Airways will have some experts from its Star Alliance partners coming in to help reassess safety procedures at the airline. They, too, might also leak some secrets to their own carrier.
Beyond the short-sighted vision of some former Thai Airways executives, according to a Bangkok Post report, the story tells a lot about the mentality of the airline. Many within the carrier are always keen to blame others over their own decade-long incapacity to solve self-inflicted problems. There is an urgent need to let Thai Airways International finally enter into the 21st century.
