Sorajak Kasemsuvan, the new president of state-owned Thai Airways International (THAI), says he is free from political influence.
Taking office yesterday, Mr Sorajak said his work would not suffer from political interference.
"I do not receive orders from any politician. That said, it is normal for a state enterprise owned by the Finance Ministry to be supervised by politicians when it comes to policies, but such political involvement is at a normal level.
"However, to free THAI completely from political influence, it would have to cease to be a state enterprise, and that is impossible," Mr Sorajak said.
Mr Sorajak said representatives of many government agencies were directors of the airline, which also meant the national flag carrier was at risk of political influence.
Mr Sorajak said Transport Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan assigned him the mission of promoting unity at THAI. He said he would accomplish this by listening to all employees and treating them fairly.
As chairman of the board of the state-run media agency Mcot Plc, Mr Sorajak said he had used the same method there, where it helped relieve conflict in the organisation. He said conflicts would be normal at the national airline, as it had over 25,000 employees.
Mr Sorajak also said he decided to apply for the position of THAI president because he was an outsider who initially had a negative attitude regarding the airline, especially from his first-hand experience of using its services.
Improving services is one of his urgent missions as the airline's president, he said. The other is to increase its revenue.
Mr Sorajak said he would use quality Thai food including Thai fragrant jasmine rice to help improve THAI services.