Thai Airways plans slimmer fleet and workforce in turnaround plan

Thai Airways International said Tuesday it is cutting its workforce by half and reducing its fleet size to become a more agile and efficient airline, as the troubled flag carrier submitted its turnaround plan, officials said. The airline was in difficulty well before the coronavirus pandemic grounded flights across the globe, booking losses nearly every year after 2012, with a record loss of 141.1b baht ($4.66b) last year. The carrier plans to maintain 13,000 to 15,000 employees on its books by 2025, acting president, Chansin Treenuchagron told a briefing, adding the move would make it more agile. It currently has about 19,500 full-time employees, down from 28,000 in 2019, and expects 6,000 to leave the company by the end of this year. These reductions are part of initiatives such as re-negotiating leases that will save the airline 52b baht by 2022, he said. “Thai Airways faced problems from intense competition from low budget carriers, open skies policies and then the global pandemic,” he said. The announcement came after the airline last month cut 240 management positions and reduced supervisory levels from eight to five to increase efficiency.<br/>