Although the Thai Airways International is now listed as No. 9 of the world’s best airlines, that is still not enough, said the Thai Airways International president on Friday.
Thai Airways International President Piyasawas Amaranand said the airline is trying very hard to improve in every aspect to be one of the top five of the world’s best airlines.
According to Skytrax, a United Kingdom-based consultancy, the public face of Inflight Research Services, Thai Airways ranked ninth of the world’s top 10 airlines in 2010, while Asiana, Singapore, Qatar and Cathay ranked first to forth respectively.
“It’s ninth in the world in terms of product and service quality according to Skytrax. We’d like to be one of the top five whatever ranking that is. The ninth, the tenth is not good enough,” the president said.
Moreover, although many countries in the world, including Thailand, are facing an economic crisis, Thai Airways has coped with the crisis very well and rapidly recovered from the crisis, the president said, adding that during the past decade, Thai Airways has expanded very rapidly.
The biggest challenge, Piyasawas said, the airline is facing is the rapid growth of low-cost airlines. However, the president is not much worried about it as low-cost airlines have different market shares from Thai Airways.
Piyasawas spoke at a seminar to celebrate the 50th anniversary namely “Asia: Beyond the Economic Horizon,” held on Friday. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva gave an opening speech, while Secretary-General of the UNCTAD Suppachai Panitchpakdi was the key note speaker.
The Thai Airways International is the designated national carrier of Thailand. Founded in 1960, it currently operates 851 flights weekly on domestic, regional and intercontinental routes to 71 destinations in 34 countries.
In 2009, Thai Airways carried a total of 18.9 million passengers and operated a fleet of 88 aircraft. As of December 31, 2009 the company’s total assets were 271,694 million Baht (9.10 billion U.S. dollars), with a paid-up capital of 1,698,900,950 shares at 10 Baht (0.34 US dollars) per share par value. The company is 51.03 percent owned by the government through the Ministry of Finance. The airline has of over 25,000 employees.
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