Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) is around 70% through its business rehabilitation plan and expects to formally exit the process early in 2024 and then relist on the Thai stock exchange no later than 2025, according to the airline's new CEO.
Chai Iamsiri, formerly the CFO at Thai Airways, took over the CEO's role on February 1, 2023. Last week, at a media briefing, he said the airline had returned to profitability in mid-2Q22 and had generated revenues of approximately THB90 billion baht (USD3.8 billion dollars) in calendar 2022. This year, Chai is expecting revenues to grow by 40%.
"Thai’s crisis has passed and it is entering an era of steadily generating revenue for sustainable growth," he said. The original plan was to exit the business rehabilitation process in late 2024, but this will be brought forward with an eye to relisting sometime in 2025.
Bangkok's Central Bankruptcy Court approved Thai's business rehabilitation plan in September 2020. At the time, the airline's liabilities were THB338.9 billion (USD14.3 billion) and total assets were THB298.9 billion (USD12.6 billion). Since then, the airline's administrators have cut operating costs, renegotiated leases, and downsized the workforce from 29,000 to 15,000.
"Thai has followed its recovery plan by reducing expenses and costs and selling unused assets," said Chai. He says the airline is now operating 49 aircraft and is at 65% of its pre-Covid capacity. Current cabin loads are averaging 85%. According to Chai, Thai's cash flow has increased to THB30 billion (USD1.26 billion) compared to THB6 billion (USD253 million) in 2021.
“Thai is in the position of continuously increasing its operating revenue because the volume of air passengers is picking up,” the CEO said. Chai's immediate focus is generating more revenue and better returns from the cash at hand. There is THB25 billion (USD1.05 billion) in available credit, split evenly between a long-term loan and working capital. Plans earlier in the rehabilitation process to borrow additional funds have been dropped, with the capital no longer required.
Chai confirmed that Thai was taking delivery of six leased A350-900s this year and was discussing leasing an additional three widebodies this year or in early 2024. Talks with Boeing about acquiring additional long-haul aircraft a little further down the track are also continuing. The CEO also said that discussions with creditors and investors about plans for a debt-to-equity conversion and additional share sales are ongoing but declined to provide further details.
