Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, Bangkok Airways president and also president of the Airlines Association of Thailand (AAT), said after many discussions, the government hasn't provided any commitment to allocate soft loans and seven airlines are giving up hope of getting that support. "From the government's explanation, they cannot allocate soft loans to us because it might discriminate against other industries that also suffer from the pandemic. Last year, seven local airlines submitted 24-billion-baht's worth of soft loan requests to the state, but due to the subdued response, they reduced the proposed figure to 5 billion baht. The number of employees at Bangkok Airways was cut by 30% during the pandemic, and the firm may have to streamline its workforce again next year. Recently, Bangkok Airways announced the resumption of a second international route from Bangkok to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, starting from Dec 1.

Source: Bangkok Post November 19, 2021 11:17 UTC