BANGKOK– The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cuts the daily revenue of Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Co (AEROTHAI) from 35 million baht to zero and the organization expected a loss of 4.2 billion baht in the 2020 fiscal year.
AEROTHAI president Somnuk Rongthong said that normally AEROTHAI collected traffic control fees worth about 35 million baht from about 2,500 flights a day.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, it served 263 flights a day and should generate the daily revenue of about 3.1 million baht. However, COVID-19-affectd airlines did not pay the fee and also sought moratoriums and exemption of overdue payment fines. As a result, AEROTHAI did not have daily revenue, Mr Somnuk said.
The civil aviation board ordered AEROTHAI to halve its fee for domestic airlines and cut it by 20% for international airlines. However, airlines refused to pay it, he said.
AEROTHAI’s daily expense amounted to about 25 million baht a day or 750 million baht a month. In the 2020 fiscal year, the organization expected to suffer a loss of about 4.2 billion baht, he said.
To cope, it suspended the recruitment of new staff, cut unnecessary spending and reduced the remunerations of its executives by 30-50%. The measures should decrease its cost by 1.48 billion baht in fiscal 2020, Mr Somnuk said. (TNA)
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