Thai Air - profits down

[stevem]

Thai Airways International has unveiled its fallen net profit of 33 per cent in the October-December quarter compared to the same period in 2004 due to soaring jet fuel costs.

The national carrier recorded net profit of 3.81 billion baht, a drop of 5.72 billion baht from the same quarter in previous year.

“Net profit dropped year-on-year because overall jet fuel prices surged 25.3 per cent during the quarter and the cost of jet fuel for Thai Airways jumped 29.3 per cent year-on-year,” a company spokeswoman said.

According to the spokeswoman staff cuts and reduced marketing costs “did nothing to stem the losses”, the spokeswoman said.

Total revenue was 45.88 billion baht, up 6.5 per cent from the previous comparative period. The figure reflected the increased flights to Europe and Australia and the addition of new routes to Moscow and Islamabad.

However increased sales growth failed to offset expenses which totaled 40.59 billion baht, an increase of 10.3 per cent on the comparative quarter in 2005.