Officials of the Legal Execution Department have agreed to postpone the meeting of creditors of Thai Airways International (THAI), being held to consider two new rehabilitation planners proposed by the Finance Ministry, until November 29.
The creditors were supposed to consider the Finance Ministry’s proposal today, but some creditors, representing a number of cooperatives, asked for the postponement, claiming that they were not given enough time to consider the proposal, which arrived Monday.
The two candidates are Polchak Nimwatana, deputy director of State Enterprise Office, and Panya Chupanich, director of Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning under the Ministry of Transport.
Creditors have, however, agreed to set the THAI share price at 2.5452 baht, as part of the debt to equity arrangement, designed to wipe out THAI’s 60 billion baht of accumulated debt.
Jamsri Supachoterat, an advisor to the THAI labour union, called on the Finance Ministry to let THAI proceed with its rehabilitation plan by not interfering with the work of the planning panel, which would open the door to political inference in the appointment of the board of the national airline and eventual corruption in the procurement of new aircraft.
Political interference in the procurement of a fleet of A340 aircraft by THAI two decades ago for routes from Bangkok to New York and Los Angeles, during the administration of Thaksin Shinawatra, resulted in massive losses, due to the aircrafts’ excessive fuel consumption and limited seating. The whole fleet was decommissioned after fewer than 7 years in service.
