Thai Airways splits commercial department into 5 operations
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Thai Airways International's board yesterday decided to overhaul the airline's commercial department to ensure its sales achieve this year's target of Bt170 billion.
“It’s not easy to give this job to any single person. If sales drop by 1 per cent, that means THAI will lose Bt1.7 billion,’’ said THAI president Sorajak Kasemsuvan.
It is the first change in the department in a decade, but it is essential because achieving the sales projection is not the job of any single person, he said. Also, the aviation business is very competitive.
The department was headed by an executive vice president, but under the restructuring,
there will be five operations with their own sales targets.
Marketing and sales management will be responsible for ticket pricing. Sales operations for Thailand and Indochina will be responsible for sales in those markets and the call centre, with a sales target of Bt50 billion.
The sales operation for the regional market including Asia, Japan, South Korea, India and Pakistan will get a sales target of Bt60 billion.
The intercontinental sales operation covers Europe, Australia and Africa with a sales target of Bt60 billion.
The commercial digital operation is responsible for social networks, with its sales target doubled to Bt36 billion.
The five units will be under the executive vice president for commercial operations. They will be the new generation coming up with new ways of managing sales operations. The change will be implemented in the first quarter of next year and progress will be evaluated every three and six months.
The board also approved the recruitment of 280 aircrew members. It had previously decided to employ 500 in total and 247 have been chosen to work with the company already.
The sale of an Airbus A340-500 was not considered at the meeting. The company is considering its options on the matter.
