Bangkok. In order to alleviate serious operational problems at Thai Airways, the military is now even moving in. According to government information, around 100 soldiers are deployed to ensure that thousands of passengers who have been waiting for their suitcases for days can finally get their luggage.
The reason why Thailand's national airline is logistically overwhelmed is the weekend's floods, which paralyzed large parts of Bangkok - and the consequences of which continue to severely affect the airline's flight and ground operations.
According to local media reports, the airline's passengers have had to wait up to six hours after landing for their luggage in recent days - or were not given it at all.
At the beginning of the week, when the flood situation in Bangkok had already eased, there were massive delays: a flight to Frankfurt am Main, which should have arrived on Monday evening, only landed in Germany on Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday, a flight to Munich was also delayed by half a day.
“Management needs to act more proactively,” said Tourism Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul – and attacked CEO Chai Eamsiri. "If he believes he can't do anything just because his term in office is almost over, I think that's unacceptable," said the minister - without directly naming the top manager. "If he doesn't want to do the work, he should quickly reconsider his position so that someone else can help improve things," the tourism minister added.
The minister, who said he himself was affected by the chaos after a flight back from Japan, accused the airline of seriously damaging Thailand's reputation and trust in tourism with the disruptions. He also suggested putting the airline back under state control. The Ministry of Finance currently holds 38.9 percent of the shares.
Only a year ago, Thai Airways completed a legal restructuring process that the airline had to go through after it went bankrupt as a result of the corona pandemic.
On Tuesday, the company announced extensive flight cancellations as a result of the logistical problems. Connections to Germany are also affected. A flight to Frankfurt planned for Tuesday and a flight to Munich planned for Wednesday were canceled. In total, around 30 percent of all departures will be canceled in the next three days, the airline said.
Airline boss Chai apologized in his first public statement on Tuesday. He said more than 5,000 pieces of luggage from weekend flights were still at the airport and should be delivered to their owners in the coming days. "Thai Airways makes no excuses and deeply regrets this incident," Chai said. "But now that it has happened, we are determined to face reality and resolve the situation with all our strength."
The manager attributed the problems primarily to an acute shortage of staff during the floods: many ground handling employees were unable to work because they lived in flooded parts of the city. The airline sent vehicles to pick up the employees. However, many stayed at home out of concern for their families and their belongings. As a result, large amounts of freight and passenger luggage piled up in the terminal building.
Constant rain brought Bangkok around 320 millimeters of rain within three days - roughly the amount of rain that the tropical metropolis normally receives in the entire month of September. According to authorities, around 700,000 people were directly affected by the floods and four people were killed.
The consequences also affected many supermarkets in the city of ten million inhabitants. Shelves at the 7-Eleven chain remained empty for days because supplies couldn't reach the stores. The Japanese manufacturer Honda had to stop work in its motorcycle factory.
The floods brought back memories of the flood crisis of 2011, when parts of Thailand were under water for months and hundreds of people died. The industry north of Bangkok was hit particularly hard at the time, where hundreds of factories had to stop operations. The failure of Thai hard drive factories led to delivery bottlenecks worldwide.
Thailand's tourism industry is worried that the recent storm will further worsen its business situation. Even before the floods, tourist numbers since the beginning of the year were almost four percent below the already disappointing previous year - partly as a result of the Iran War. Tourism is one of the most important economic sectors for the Southeast Asian country.
