泰国航空公司(Thai Airways)董事长瓦洛普•布卡那苏(Wallop Bhukkanasut)宣布辞职。此前有人指称,去年11月,他和妻子及另一位高管在从东京飞往曼谷的航班上携带了近400公斤行李。
The executive chairman of Thai Airways has resigned following allegations that he, his wife and another executive had flown with almost 400 kilos of baggage between Tokyo and Bangkok last November.
瓦洛普表示,40多件行李中,大部分属于一位不具名的重要人物,里面装着敬奉给一个曼谷神庙的水果。他在下周可能出台内部调查报告之前提交了辞呈。
Wallop Bhukkanasut, the chairman, said most of the more than 40 pieces of luggage belonged to an unnamed but important person and contained fruit to be donated to a Bangkok temple. He tendered his resignation before an internal inquiry could report next week.
这起由泰航员工泄露的事件,在泰国引起了广泛的愤怒。泰航员工对这家总是亏损的国有航空公司的成本削减政策感到不满。
The alleged incident, leaked by Thai staff disgruntled at cost-cutting at the lossmaking national carrier, produced widespread outrage in Thailand.
泰航员工还指责瓦洛普命令有关人员把自己的行李送到失物招领办公室,以逃避关税。但瓦洛普对此予以否认。
Mr Wallop has also been accused by Thai staff of ordering his baggage to be delivered to the lost and found baggage office to avoid customs duty, an allegation he denies.
泰航新任总裁比亚沙瓦•阿玛拉南(Piyasvasti Amranand)表示,希望在这家曾受人尊敬的航空公司削减成本,清除裙带关系和特权文化——他表示,正是这些因素导致了泰航亏损。
Piyasvasti Amranand, Thai's newly installed president, says he wants to cut costs at the once-respected airline and clear it of the nepotism and culture of entitlement he says has brought it low.
去年,比亚沙瓦在接受英国《金融时报》采访时表示,他的首要打击目标之一是泰航现任及前任高管占公司便宜的行为——许多高管认为,乘坐免费头等舱是理所当然的。
He told the Financial Times in an interview last year that one of his prime targets was freeloading by current and former executives of the airline, many of whom claimed free first class seats as a matter of course.
泰航工会官员表示,如果瓦洛普为自己的超重行李付帐,账单费用将为6000多美元。泰航一直在大量消耗现金,去年前9个月净亏损15.7亿泰铢(合4700万美元),不过上季度客流量有所回升。
Union officials at the airline said that Mr Wallop's excess baggage bill would have cost over $6,000 had he paid. The airlne has been bleeding cash, reporting a net loss of Bt1.57bn ($47m) for the first nine months of this year, although traffic did pick up in the last quarter.