Sydebolle

Thais are NEVER wrong and if it does not work their way round then the scapegoat is alien, irrespective if form the East, West or anywhere else. This will certainly set new levels in dealing with Thai governmental contracts in particular and with Thais in general. Blood is thicker than water - that's how the saying goes!

Crossing out something like the three submarines and the eight helicopters (those gun ships come at a snap of USD 40 million - each that is) would be balancing the budget even better .....

Yyyyyaaaahhhhhhwwwwwwnnnnnn! Next please, how can you even publish such stuff if you see departure/arrival screens at Swampy. Wondering how many official licenses are in all those CPUs, terminals and displays

Does the present government and those responsible for tourism have the slightest clue or idea, what kind of message this sends out? The mind boggles - and the country remains empty ........

Is Saksayam Chidchob eyeing little manila envelopes? I mean, after all that hopeless (pun intended) disaster you do not want to tell me, that the almighty Thai government signed a contract with an unqualified alien company and, decades later and billions of Baht piling up they all of a sudden "find out" that all this was not valid from Day One? Carry on the good work, Saksayam Chidchob, and no non-Thai company will ever do business with the Land of Smiles anymore. The burden of the unfinished project, companies gone bust and employees becoming redundant - apart from above-mentioned billions of Baht of delayed interest payment - is borne not by the government, nor the transport ministry nor the state railway of inefficiency but the tax payer only. It is the latter's fault to elect the absolutely wrong people into decision-making positions at that time. Be glad that the tax payers are Thais and alien working in Thailand; in any other civilized country the entire lot of crooks, clowns and thieves would be facing the music, getting locked up in jail and the keys thrown far, far away.

.... parents scrEAM .. not screen (spellchecker in overdrive again) .....

"........ a relative of ...... said that the family should have realised something was wrong - a large candle lit in front of the coffin fell down twice even though there was not a gust of wind. They should have realised it was an omen." The mind boggles - the rest of the world has meanwhile made it to the 21st century - me thinks!

And me fool always thought that Karaoke lounges are there to sing, be merry and have a good time with equally singing friends ........ Got that wrong as well, it seems

"invite General Apirat for chat over his controversial speech" - says it all. This general, as all his predecessors, did not understand the purpose of the army as well as his particular job posting. The army in general and the general in particular is there to serve and execute the government's instructions. The government has only one purpose which is to serve and execute the will of the majority of the people while protecting the minorities of eventual steamrollering by the majority. In short, he seemed to have explicitly overstepped his authority by far when doing such little stage shows without an explicit government order - I have no knowledge of neither order nor the gentleman's speech. Governments are voted into office by the people, the government then has "assisting" tools to execute the will of the people. The police is responsible for internal affairs, the army (and its staggering number of 1'700 generals serving Thailand) cares about external affairs and security against foreign attacks. In case of extreme natural disasters like floods, avalanches etc. the government may instruct the army to assist the police in the latter's endeavours. In any other country this general would not be "invited for a chat" but demoted if not booted out of office. His (to me unknown) rhetorics were apparently not quite in line with the government's doctrine of serving the people's will .......... This is, of course, only if all that hickhack in the media following the general's appearance carries any truth and weight.

Well, maybe the big chief has a look on what others around him are doing. It is not the US-China trade war, nor the fuel, nor the bad spirits in the hangars and offices of TG worldwide, it is the governmental impact on this carrier. Marred by highly inefficient boards being posted according to political nepotism with mostly zero experience nor ability exceeding the pressing of a button for the correct floor in an elevator .... The service sucks from A to Z, delays and cancellations are dealt with (mostly) by just walking away and despite preferential treatment Tg managed to pile up B 20 billion (THB 20'000'000'000) in losses, apart from debts left, right and centre. Whoever lands on Suvannaphum (the preferential airport, not accessible to the low cost carriers FD, DD, SL and others) will witness a complete presentation of TG's fleet parked all over the apron any mid afternoon. Other planes can be found from Sukhabhibal 3 Road in Bangkok to the Chic Chic Market in Nong Khai; overseas presence of the fleet is evident in the boneyards to the United States of America. The flying hours were mentioned. I had a look (www.flightradar24.com) on what those other Thai airlines are doing with their aircraft on a randomly chosen plane): 10h 45m Nok Air on 14th October (HS-DBY) 10h 45m 13h 40mThai Lion Air on 14th October (HS-LTM) 13h 40 11h 21m Air Asia on 13th October (HS-CBE) (14th October incomplete data). Quite obviously TG should fare much - by average - and achieve considerably higher flying hours; having long haul flights increase the utilization hours a lot. A "Europe Turn-Around" flight can clock easily 20 hours in a full day of 24 hours. Maintenance and ground time on almost exclusively short-haul carriers is higher, to start with. And, as the saying goes: An airplane not flying is a costly airplane. Best is to close TG and open the skies of Siam to operators of much more professionalism, to be privately financed and - by all means - zero intervention by all those funny governments which allowed those little hands in all TG tills for the last 27 years of the airline's suffering. Darwin already said it, not the richest, smartest, most beautiful or quickest will survive - that trophy goes to the most flexible, attentive player in the pit - go figure! I - for one - assume that nothing whatsoever will happen (except sending the present board off the duty stage with some golden parachutes). A new set of "professionals" will take over and the endless saga of TG will just go into the next season with new sequels .......... Until that changes I shall resort to alternative operators in the air which offer more flight, seat comfort and service for - well, here you go - less money. If Finnair, Air France, Swiss - just to name a few - can manage it should be no rocket science for those carefully chosen top shots on the TG board and all their Pi & Nong underlings ..........