Nok Air denies allegations that it required payment of training fees from junior pilots as a requirement for employment at the airline, responding to a lawsuit.
Teerawat Angkasakulkiat, president of the Thai Pilots Association, said 13 pilots filed a lawsuit against Nok Air last month.
He said in 2018, the plaintiffs paid around 2.5 million baht per person for training to qualify for a commercial pilot licence (CPL), anticipating employment at the airline after the programme.
Mr Teerawat said the pilots informed the association the airline inquired if the pilots could afford to pay for their own type rating training fees, as this programme required qualifications to operate a specific type of aircraft. The pilots believed this request was unfair.
Wutthiphum Jurangkool, chief executive of Nok Air, insisted the airline did not receive any training fees from these pilots.
He said the incident occurred before he became an executive with the airline in 2019.
The student pilots paid training fees directly to an aviation training agency to qualify for a CPL, not Nok Air, said Mr Wutthiphum.
The training agency may have told the pilots the airline would employ them after the programme, but Nok Air cannot verify that statement, he said.
The airline is conducting an internal investigation into its agreement with the training agency, said Mr Wutthiphum.
According to the lawsuit, during the pandemic Nok Air asked the plantiffs to take skills tests and interviewed them for jobs at the company. Some of them had been employed by other airlines, while others were still searching for jobs.
Most of the applicants couldn't pass the examination. The airline asked these pilots to retake the test, but they did not show up, instead filing a lawsuit against the airline, he said.
The training agency has already closed, said Mr Wutthiphum.
The suit was filed at the civil court of first instance.
Prior to Covid-19, the airline employed seven pilots who applied through this agency, and some of them still work for Nok Air, he said.
The airline does not have a policy to collect type rating training fees from pilots who obtain CPLs to qualify for employment, said Mr Wutthiphum.
Nok Air typically offers a pilot bond, which mandates pilots work for the airline for a certain period, roughly 6-7 years, or deducts the training fee from the pilot's total earnings, he said.