Thai offers in-flight food to groundlings
Thai Airways International is to develop a chain of restaurants across Europe by the end of the year as part of a plan to use employees it is forbidden to shed.
Evaluation studies are being carried out for London, Paris and Frankfurt, and a restaurant to test the idea is planned for Bangkok.
The business, to be called Royal Thai Cuisine, will be aimed at raising the profile of the airline and of Thai food. Each restaurant, to be run by Thai Airways catering staff, will seat a minimum of 80 people.
Under a directive from the Thai government, which owns the carrier, the airline cannot lay off any of its 26,000 staff despite the cost pressures it faces in a competitive market.
In recent months, it has been forced to cut capacity on European, Japanese and North American routes from its Bangkok hub due to a downturn in demand after last September's atrocities.
The airline's commercial vice-president, Tasnai Sudasna, said: "We are turning a crisis into an opportunity."
