Thai Airways styrelseledamot undvek att betala för övervikt

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Det är tydligen skillnad på folk och fä bland Thai Airways passagerare!

Artikeln hittad på ett annat forum.

Göran

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“Many a traveller gets caught out carrying excess luggage but few on the scale of Wallop Bhukkanasut, executive chairman of troubled Thai Airways.

Last month Mr Wallop and his wife arrived at Tokyo’s Narita airport with 30 pieces of luggage, tipping the scales at 380kg.

In first class, Mr Wallop’s allowance for flight TG677 to Bangkok on November 14 would have been 40kg, plus 20kg as a “gold card” holder.

With his wife enjoying the same privileges, they could muster an allowance of 120kg between them. Yet their excess baggage was still 260kg.

The fee would have been hundreds of thousands of baht – had they paid. Ampon Kittiampon, chairman of the Thai board, announced on Friday that a special committee would conduct an investigation after an initial probe showed Mr Wallop had a case to answer for avoiding excess baggage charges.

“The board has approved a plan to set up a committee to examine the case, which we would expect to conclude within three weeks,” said Mr Ampon.

The incident, leaked by Thai staff disgruntled at cost-cutting at the lossmaking national carrier, has produced widespread outrage in Thailand.

As the storm grew, Mr Wallop conceded that he had carried the excess luggage, most of which he said was fruit destined for a famous Buddhist temple in Bangkok as a donation.

But he denied an allegation that he had ordered the packages to be delivered to the lost-and-found department at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi international airport in order to evade inspection by customs.

Under mounting pressure to quit, Mr Wallop has requested leave of absence from the board while Mr Ampon’s committee makes its inquiries.

Korn Chatikavanij, Thailand’s finance minister, has demanded a thorough investigation by the board. Union members among Thai’s staff have been wearing black to reflect their outrage.

Thai is restructuring after posting a net loss of 21.4bn baht in 2008. Last month the airline posted a 4.02bn baht ($121m) net loss for the quarter that ended in September.

Before the scandal erupted, Piyasvasti Amranand, the newly appointed Thai Airways president, railed against political interference, saying nepotism was dragging the carrier down.

“When you promote people who have connections but no ability, initially it’s OK, but eventually it weakens the company. That’s what happened at Thai Airways,” he said.”

[mr bangkok]

Thai Airways Revises Criteria for Ticket Upgrading, Excess Baggage
UPDATE : 11 January 2010
The national flag carrier, Thai Airways, is revising its criteria on privilege package for staff and executives as well as ticket upgrading and baggage load for passengers.

The new rules are expected to be imposed in a few months.

President of Thai Airways International, Piyasvasti Amranand, revealed that the airline is revising remuneration package for staffs and executive board members and said conditions for flight passengers on ticket upgrading and checked baggage will be more strict. :scratch:

Thai Airways Executive Vice President for Human Resources and General Management Pandit Chanapai will preside over the panel working on these issues.

The revised criteria are expected to be implemented in March.

According to the new rules, Piyasvasti said the airline’s staff members or executives who fly with excess luggage will have to ask for permission from the executive vice president for commercial department, without a maximum limit.

For general passengers, weight of the checked luggage will be able to extend up to 50 kilograms. :cheers:

He added that information about flight ticket upgrading and excess baggage loads since early November last year will be gathered from Thai Airways offices worldwide for inspection.

Initially, it was found that several parties had applied for privileges, including politicians, state officials, military and police personnel and media representatives.

However, the case of state officials using privileges for ticket upgrading or excess baggage charge exemption exceeding 3,000 baht will be illegal and the anti-graft commission will have to look into the matter.

As for the case of Thai Airways’ former executive Wallop Bhukkanasut avoiding excess baggage charges on up to 40 suitcases worth 200,000 baht, the airline’s president said he was informed about the investigation result and there will be an official announcement for the case on January 15.

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@mr bangkok wrote:

For general passengers, weight of the checked luggage will be able to extend up to 50 kilograms. :cheers:

Notera att det inte står att det är gratis så vad det egentligen betyder får framtiden utvisa!

Göran

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