Thai Airways – To cut 1,500 jobs this year

Thai Airways expects to return to profit earlier than expected in the fourth quarter, aiming to cut 1,500 jobs this year under its recently approved restructuring plan.

The airline also said it would shed more than a quarter of its full-time employees by 2018, the first major job cuts announcement since the plan was given the go-ahead last month.

Thai had previously said it aimed to cut costs and prioritise certain routes to return to profit as soon as the middle of next year.

The airline, which employs 25,000 people and another 5,000 sub-contracted staff, was singled out as the first state enterprise to undergo reform by Thailand’s military rulers who took over in May from a government accused of corruption.

“We expect to see profit in the fourth quarter,” Air Chief Marshall Prajin Juntong, currently chairman of Thai Airways and the military government’s head of economic affairs, told reporters.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Thai Airways To Cut Jobs On Way To Profit.