Thai Airways to start 6th weekly flight from Lahore from 15 Apr 2024
Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) has decided to increase frequency to Lahore the Cultural Capital of Pakistan. The 6th weekly flight will commence from 15 April 2024. Thai Airways will have a daily service to /from Lahore except Wednesdays.
THAI operates flights to three destinations in Pakistan which are Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Pakistani travellers prefer Thai Airways as it has excellent connections to Malaysia, Japan, Korea China, and Australia. For Domestic flights Thai Airways offers short connections to Phuket, Ko Samui, Chiang Mai. Besides passenger sales the airline has strong cargo demand from Pakistan.
History of Thai Airways
Thai Airways International Public Company Limited is the national carrier of the Kingdom of Thailand. It operates domestic, regional and intercontinental flights radiating from its home base in Bangkok to key destinations around the world and within Thailand. The company’s fully paid up share capital amounts to 16,988,765,500 Baht (9 May 2005) and is 53.77% owned by the Ministry of Finance, the Thai Government. At the end of September 2004, consolidated total assets of the company amounted to 193,211 million Baht. In its operations, THAI has achieved profitability every year for the last 40 consecutive years
Thai Airways International was founded in 1960 as a joint venture between Thailand’s domestic carrier, Thai Airways Company (TAC) and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) with the Scandinavian carrier initially providing a 30% share capital of two million Baht. SAS also provided operations, managerial and marketing expertise, with training assistance aiming at building a fully independent national airline within the shortest possible time. Thai nationals, through training and experience, were gradually able to assume full managerial responsibility and the number of expatriate staff duly reduced until, in 1987, expatriates accounted for less than one percent of staff based in Thailand.
On April 1, 1977, after a 17 – year capital participation partnership with SAS, the Thai Government bought out SAS remaining 15 % holding and THAI became fully owned by the Thai people.
In 1960, flights were inaugurated from Bangkok to 9 overseas destinations all within the Asian region. Intercontinental services were launched in 1971, to Australia, followed by flights to Europe in 1972, and to North America in 1980.Thai Airways International growth was greatly accelerated on April 1, 1988 as a result of its merger with Thai Airways Company (TAC), the domestic airline, which raised the Company’s share capital from 1,400 million to 2,230 million Baht . Under the Cabinet policy, as authorised by General Prem Tinsulanonda, Prime Minister at the time, Thai Airways International would be responsible for commercial aviation, both international and domestic. Thai Airways International can now rightfully be called Thailand’s only national carrier.
On June 25, 1991, Thailand Cabinet approved a resolution enabling THAI to list its shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). The resolution authorized THAI to convert Baht 10.77 billion of retained earnings into capital, and increase its capital by an additional Baht 3 billion with a first issue of 100 million shares. Of those 100 million shares, five million shares were reserved for THAI employees at par Baht 10 and 95 million shares were to be offered to the public.
The listing of THAI shares was commenced on July 19, 1991. By converting retained earnings into capital and increased its share capital upon the Cabinet approval, THAI registered share capital has risen from Baht 2,230 million to a total of Baht 14,000 million. This has made the total amount of THAI share listing to be the largest in the history of SET. Moreover, THAI public offering of shares is the single largest one ever undertaken in Thailand.