As part of its restructuring plan, Thai Airways International Pcl will be reducing its offered flights and cut 1,401 jobs through voluntary retirement, according to a report from Reuters.
The two-year plan includes reducing costs and capacity by about 20 percent, which also includes selling aircraft.
Thai Airways will be suspending the flights from Bangkok to Los Angeles, and to Rome, according to the company's news on flight schedule change. Flights to Kolkata, India will also be reduced, from 2 flights daily to 1 flight daily.
Charumporn Jotikasthira, president of Thai Airways told Reuters that the suspended flights will reduce the company's capacity by 5 percent.
"It's normal that we have to cut costs and adjust flights to suit changing situations," he said.
He also added that the suspended flights have been losing the company money. The loss amounts to more than 100 million Baht a year.
The company aims to reduce 15 percent capacity in the second half of 2015.
The company also plans to transfer some of its operations to Thai Smile, the company's mid-range unit, according to the company's news.
Flights to Hyderabad, India, Luang Prabang, Laos, and Changsha, China will be transferred to Thai Smile. The changes will take effect as soon as "the approval process is completed at destination countries," the news states.
Charumporn also adds that the company has set 5.3 billion Baht or $151.86 million for the voluntary retirement scheme. The number of staff being voluntarily retired doesn't include those who will reach retirement age this year.
The company is aiming to reduce up to 9 billion Baht in operating cost this year.
Charumporn said to Reuters that he is expecting Thai Airways' operations to break even by the end of the year, although the bottom line would be impacted by rising restructuring costs.
Flights to London, U.K. and Frankfurt, Germany, will increase, though, according to the company's news. Both flights will double its weekly flights of seven to 14 flights, for both the Airbus A380-800 and Boeing 77-300ER.
All changes to flight schedule, except for the transfer of operations, will take effect on October 25, 2015.
