Thai military decide to scrap privileges of Thai Airways Board members

BANGKOK – Thai military are looking to conquest Thai public opinion with “cleansing” operations in various sectors of activities to get rid of corruption. After dismantling ten days ago taxis run by the mafia in Phuket, military turned their attention to Thai Airways International, asking the Ministry of Transport to stop providing unjustified costly privileges to members of the board while the airline recorded its worst financial performance over the past year. On Tuesday, the National Council for Peace and Order asked then the airline’s board to approve the removal of the free tickets given to each of the 15 members.
 

All the 15 received until today 10 free domestic tickets and another 10 other business class tickets to overseas destinations. According to sources mentioned by the Bangkok Post, the average ticket on a domestic route would cost 7,000 Baht per coupon while the average cost for a ticket to overseas destinations would cost some 60,000 Baht. The 10 tickets are just like a honey pot as Thai board members can also attribute any tickets to members of their family. The decision needs now an approval from the airline’s board but it came at no surprise that Ampon Kitti-ampon, the cabinet secretary-general and ex chairman of Thai Airways, complied to the military ruling. The board is due to give its –most probably- approval to the change by the end of June while Thai Airways unions already gave their approval to this decision. 
 

Meanwhile, financial privileges have not been dismantled late. Each board member receives now an allowance of 50,000 baht for a meeting and each sub-committee member gets 10,000 baht. This allowance will not be altered. 
 

Thai Airways has been in the red for several quarters, with a net loss of 2.6 billion baht for the first three months of this year.