Court grants Thai more time to file restructuring plan

The Central Bankruptcy Court has granted Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) one more month to file a rehabilitation plan, the airline said in a stock market filing. The Thai flag carrier requested, on December 28, 2020, a one-month extension of the legal deadline falling on January 2. The carrier argued that given the complexity and centrality of the rehabilitation plan to its business future, it needed more time to conduct an “all-aspect analysis, consideration and formulation of the debt structure, capital structure, and organizational structure”. Thai Airways said that it was still holding talks with employees, business partners, debtors, and financiers about the shape of the plan. The Court has now granted Thai time until February 2 to file the plan. The Court and, separately, the creditors have to approve it before it can be implemented. Thai Airways filed for restructuring in May 2020, facing a pre-COVID mountain of debt exacerbated by the total shutdown of its scheduled operations, which only restarted, on an extremely limited scale, in December 2020. The Court approved the filing on October 2, setting a three-month deadline for the filing of a detailed plan.