Bangkok Airways is offering staff a voluntary redundancy package and suspending several international services to help it cut costs.
"During this critical stage, the airline will restructure the entire company in order to enable it to respond to market situations in a more timely fashion," says Bangkok Airways.
"This includes evaluating of the cost effectiveness of our fleet efficiency, routes and company organisation structure."
A "departure package" will be offered to staff on a voluntary basis, says a company spokesman. He adds that the carrier has approximately 2,000 employees, and that there is no set target for departures.
The package has three options: retirement with a payout based on years with the company, paid leave, and a voluntary 20% pay cut for two years. For the pay cut option, the money deducted will be repaid to the employee after two years with 7% interest.
The carrier lost Baht 1.05 billion ($31 million) in the 18 months to June, it says. Owing to falling revenues, it has shifted its focus to regional and domestic routes.
On 25 October, Bangkok Airways will suspend its daily Bangkok-Ho Chi Minh City and twice-weekly Bangkok-Xian services. It will suspend its twice-weekly Bangkok-Hiroshima service on 27 October, and its four-times-weekly Bangkok-Guilin service on 10 November.
Bangkok Airways said in July that it has cancelled an order for an ATR 72-500, and delayed the delivery of its Airbus A319 aircraft on order.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
