Thai airline companies on path to recovery but still in the red

Thailand's airlines are finally recovering with flights on the increase after the government allowed borders to open up to foreign tourists and business travelers. However, high oil prices and the weak Thai baht have pushed up costs and weighed down on the recovery. Airlines have suffered Q3 losses despite increased revenue. Thai Airways, posted a net loss of 4.8b baht ($135m) in Q3, but that was a fraction of the 40b baht lost in the same period of last year. Thai Airways said the impairment loss on assets was larger because of oil prices and the adverse exchange rate. Thai Air Asia also had a net loss of 4b baht in the quarter, double the 2b baht loss in the same period last year. Bangkok Airways posted the smallest loss with only 392m baht compared to 6.9b baht last year. "Their performances are better with more tourists coming in, but it is not good enough to generate aprofit," an analyst at Asia Plus Securities told NIkkei Asia. According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Thailand has welcomed 7.6m foreign tourists so far this year. That was well above 427,000 last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. TAT expects that up to 10m tourists overall this year, and is forecasting 18m in 2023. Thai Airways saw a 582% rise in revenue to 32.9b baht in the third quarter, up from 4.8b baht in the same period of last year. Air Asia's saw a 969% increase between the two periods, and Bangkok Airways 486%. Oil prices have meanwhile jumped 80% from an average of $81 per barrel last year to $146 per barrel in Q3, seriously eroding profitability. "We expect the Thai airline business to continue [its recovery] in the fourth quarter, which is the high season," said an analyst at Kasikorn Research Center. "But the business will not look as good as [before the] COVID pandemic until next year or the year after when tourism is expected to recover completely."<br/>