Thai Airways International (THAI) has found that the flight captain and the Zurich station chief acted unethically in causing the delay of a Zurich-Bangkok flight during a pilot-passenger seating row.
The airline management yesterday announced the result of its investigation into the seating dispute on flight TG971, which delayed its departure for more than two hours on Oct 11.
THAI President Sumeth Damrongchaitham said that those affected by the delay of flight TG971 on the route Zurich-Bangkok had been asked to provide information to the investigation committee.
"It was found and concluded that the TG971 pilot and THAI Zurich station manager performed their duties accordingly but failed to exercise good judgement in meeting the company's mission and ethics of providing passengers with the best possible air transportation experience," Mr Sumeth said.
"They failed to coordinate with each other to resolve the problem regarding passive crew seating, and this resulted in the flight delay that impacted adversely on passengers and the company's reputation."
Both employees will be subject to disciplinary action, and compensation would be awarded to the passengers affected by the delay, according to the THAI president.
"As president of THAI leading the airline's management team and everyone at THAI, we accept responsibility for what had happened and would like to apologise for any frustration and distress it has caused," he added.
"I want to reassure our passengers and customers that at THAI, safety and customer satisfaction are our top priority. We shall take corrective action, create better alignment and efficiency with a stronger customer-centric approach to prevent any recurrence of this kind of incident and make THAI the pride of Thailand again."