THAI AIRASIA OPERATIONS IN AUGUST TEMPORARILY CLOSED AMID DOMESTIC FLIGHT BAN

By Linda Khoo Hui Li

BANGKOK, Aug 1 -- Thai AirAsia has temporarily closed all operations for August amid domestic flight ban in Thailand, with all employees going on unpaid leave for the month.

Thai AirAsia Co Ltd said in a statement the airline would also defer and split the salary payment to employees for July-August 2021. 

The airline said the suspension of flight operations since July had directly affected the airline’s business operations, especially in terms of liquidity and capital management of the company.

“Despite our best efforts at mitigating these short term effects, the situation has taken a turn for the worse and became more severe than we initially expected.

“Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that we implement these short-term measures,” it said.

For July, the statement said salaries for manager level and above, including senior management will be deferred to September.

“All  other employees with active status will receive 50 per cent of their salary in July, and the remaining 50 per cent deferred to September. For employees with inactive status will have 25 per cent of their salary deferred to September,” the statement said.

“We expect the situation will improve by September. Salary payment to all employees shall be regularised once the funds become available and our operations reinstated,” it said.

As Thailand fights its worst COVID-19 outbreak, the government has rolled-out various measures to curb the spread of the virus including a ban on commercial domestic flights to destinations in Bangkok and 12 provinces which categorized under maximum and strict controlled areas or “dark red zones”. 

In line with the measures taken by the Thai govt, Thai AirAsia has suspended all domestic flights from July 12 to 31.

-- BERNAMA