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30-Nov-2009 10:48 AM

Thai Airways President calls on Thai carriers to cooperate against foreign airline competition

Thai Airways President, Piyasvasti Amranand reportedly called on Thai-owned carriers to cooperate in order to compete against foreign competitors, particularly AirAsia (Bangkok Post, 28-Nov-2009). Mr Amranand suggested the carriers could implement codeshare agreements and consolidate their networks to avoid "unnecessary" competition. Thai AirAsia CEO, Tassapon Bijleveld responded stating the LCC was bringing new passengers into Thailand for Thai carriers and that Thai AirAsia and Thai Airways serve different markets. If correctly reported, combining in the way suggested would probably be illegal under Thai competition law. Thai AirAsia is in any event majority owned by Thai interests.

Thai Airways: "Instead of fighting among ourselves, it would be better for us, Thai airlines, to stick together, co-operate and fight AirAsia, which is the biggest threat. They [AirAsia] are expanding rapidly, taking a lot of passengers away. Their Thai market share has been increasing rapidly," Piyasvasti Amranand, President. Source: Bangkok Post, 28-Nov-2009.

Thai AirAsia: "Why are they seeing us in that light? They should see us complementing them, by bringing passengers from Asean into Thailand and feeding them to Thai airlines and THAI through its Bangkok hub…It is fair to say that THAI should be competing with legacy carriers such as Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Emirates, not us," Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO. Source: Bangkok Post, 28-Nov-2009.

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