Since the early 80s, there’s been a tradition over at Thai Airways to only ever appoint Thai nationals to executive positions. Well, that’s about to change.
Effective as soon as the remuneration package has been sorted, industry veteran – Bryan Banston, an Aussie – will take on the position of vice-president of sales for Thai Airways.
Thai Airways is currently struggling in the sales department, and it’s hoped the appointment of Banston, who has over 30 years of industry experience – most recently as the vice-president for commercial operations for Australasia at Emirates, will help the airline get back on track. (Interestingly, Banston was replaced by former Qantas Airways executive Rob Gurney).
Banston will be the first non-Thai to assume the executive post since the early 1980s, when a couple of Americans and Scandinavians held senior executive jobs at Thailand’s national airline.
Bryan Banston
If the appointment of a non-Thai to an executive position wasn’t enough to provoke criticism from the Thai people, surely the decision to offer a generous employment package to Banston will. The Australian executive will receive a basic maximum salary of 650,000 baht a month ($25,000 AUD), which is three times the level paid to a Thai executive of equivalent corporate seniority at the airline; it’s even higher than that of the senior executive vice-president for commercial operations.
Banston will also be entitled to a monthly travel allowance of 70,000 baht ($2,700), a housing allowance of 100,000 baht ($4,000), four business-class tickets each for international and domestic travel on Thai Airways per year, medical and insurance coverage. He’ll also be able to gorge on all the delicious pad thai he desires (shouldn’t that be payment in itself?).
The question asked by many Thais – and it’s a fair question indeed – is couldn’t the airline have found some local talent to fill the role, and fill it for even less financial compensation?
According to Thai Airways president Charamporn Jotikasthira, the remuneration package offered to Banston is in-line with international scales.
Thai Airways President Charamporn Jotikasthira
Charamporn is also keen to tap Banston’s professional expertise to help the cash-strapped airline turn it around after suffering 18.1 billion baht ($713,000 AUD) in net losses in the first nine months of last year. Given the fact that Banston worked for Emirates for years, which Thai Airways has accused for taking much business from it – especially on European routes, Banston may well be worth his weight in gold.