Thai Lion Airways captain, Thanun Khantatatbumroong, has been delivering essential supplies to his countrymen as part of GrabFood delivery service, and he's doing it in style, riding a BMW R 1200 GS Adventure (GSA) motorcycle. He's also doing it for about a month now.
At first, we thought it was fake news, a hoax, or a publicity stunt. After all, some of our friends in the motorcycle industry can get quite creative particularly with all this time on their hands thanks to the lockdown. But it's serious business for this pilot from Bangkok, Thailand.
Perhaps, one of the most severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic is the airline industry. The pandemic has singlehandedly grounded nearly all airplanes on the planet. As a result, airline crew were either put on unpaid leave, or worse, terminated to cut costs.
Captain Thanun on national TV
Unfortunately, Captain Thanun, as his colleagues call him, was cut from his job as a pilot. But that situation did not dissuade him. Instead, he found another opportunity to make a living, as well as to regularly ride his beloved BMW GSA daily by joining Bangkok's fleet of GrabFood delivery service riders. He couldn't have joined at a better time as the Royal Thai Government has also imposed a “partial national lockdown” that could last until May.
“Even if you get a profit of 10 baht. It's profit. Do as we have,” said Captain Thanun through his Facebook page. Besides making a living and being able to ride his GSA, Capt. Thanun is also helping his fellow Thais by delivering essential needs during this crisis.
Captain Thanun has also teamed up with other aircraft crew members to create their own delivery network, which is claimed to be generating not less than ThB1,000 (about PhP1,600) in revenue daily.
“I will continue to ride [with Grabfood] until next month. We should plan. We should also reduce anything that is not necessary. We can reduce and save. Keep going, everyone.”
There's no wounded pride here. Capt. Thanun has certainly found the silver lining in all of this. If in similar circumstances, would you follow the captain's footsteps?
