AOT to pay 7.5-mth bonus
Airports of Thailand's board of directors has approved a record bonus payment for the 2014-15 operations.
Employees will be entitled to 7.5 months of salary for their service in the year which ended in September, above 6.5 months in the previous year.
Prasong Poontaneat, director-general of the Revenue Department as chairman of the listed state enterprise, attributed the record-high bonus to financial improvement.
In the first nine months of the fiscal year, AOT reaped Bt12.9 billion in net profit. In 2013-14 fiscal year, the full-year net profit was Bt12.2 billion.
"The number of passengers increased to 106 million in the year, and several airports operated above capacity. The staff had to work hard and helped improve the bottom line. The bonus payment is raised to boost their morale. Parts of the profit will also be reserved for future expansion as AOT plans to invest over Bt130 billion to expand the capacity of several airports. Sitting on cash worth about Bt40-Bt50 billion now, we would like to minimise our debt burden," he said.
The operating results of AOT, which operates six international airports, are closely linked to the tourism industry.
Thailand expects record 30 million international tourist arrivals this year, up from its original projection of 28.8 million. Last month's deadly bomb blast in Bangkok is no longer expected to affect the tourism sector in the coming high season.
