Six members of Thai Airways International Plc's (THAI) board of directors will be nominated to execute the airline's debt rehabilitation plan and their names will be submitted to the Central Bankruptcy Court on Aug 17, according to THAI's acting president, Chansin Treenuchagron.
The six members are ACM Chaiyapruk Didyasarin, chairman of the board; Chakkrit Parapuntakul, second vice chairman; Prapan Salirathavibhaga, an independent director; Boontuck Wungcharoen, an independent director; Piyasvasti Amranand, an independent director; and Mr Chansin himself, who drafted the rehab plan.
Apart from the directors, the rehab team will also include EY Corporate Advisory Services Co.
Mr Chansin said the board members names' will be proposed to the court for consideration. If the court approves them, their appointment will be formally announced in the Royal Gazette.
The next step in the rehab plan is the registration of creditors, which can either be done at the THAI head office or at the Legal Execution Department.
The registration will give a clear picture of who the creditors are and the precise amount of debt owed. A time frame will also be set for the registration of creditors and the issue over the length of the rehabilitation will also be settled.
Mr Chansin said the biggest challenge in the rehab plan is accurately forecasting the direction of the airline business in the months ahead, which is just as crucial as assessing and improving the company's balance sheets.
He said most creditors -- including financial institutions and aircraft leasing firms -- were sympathetic toward THAI's situation and agreed that the airline should prepare the rehab plan by itself.
THAI's total outstanding debt currently stands at about 244.9 billion baht.
Last month, the flag-carrier announced a huge fall in passenger numbers, with only about 3.5 million passengers carried in the first five months of the year.
The airline's load factor, which stood at about 78% in the same period last year, tumbled to 69%.
The passenger figures were taken before THAI suspended all its international and domestic flights in early May due to the Covid-19 pandemic, although the airline had been in the red long before that.