BANGKOK, 13 March 2020: Thai Airways International confirmed the airline’s president, Sumeth Damrongchaitham, resigned effective 11 March.
He tendered his resignation to a special board of directors meeting on 12 March although his resignation was pre-dated Wednesday 11 March,
The press statement said the board had acknowledged and approved Sumeth’s resignation as both president and a member of Board of Directors.
He joined the airline as president in 2017 but failed to turnaround the airline that continued to suffer heavy losses.
Last October, he was quoted by the Bangkok Post saying the airline faced a crisis that would require the 20,000 odd staff to change their mindset dramatically if the airline was to turnaround heavy losses.
At the time he blamed the decline on competition mainly from low-cost airlines serving routes to northern Asian that represented in the past up to 30% of the airline’s fare revenue. THAI has hired various outsiders to head the airline in recent years and none of them succeeded in addressing the issue of overstaffing or raise the airline’s performance to compete against intense regional competition.
