23-6-2023 (BANGKOK) Thai Airways is looking to purchase at least 30 new aircraft by the end of the year, with plans to double its fleet of narrow-body jets over the next decade, according to CEO Chai Eamsiri. The airline will issue a ‘request for proposal’ to Airbus and Boeing to buy 30 wide-body and an undisclosed number of narrow-body aircraft next week. The move comes as the Southeast Asian carrier aims to cash in on a post-pandemic travel boom by bolstering regional routes.
Thai Airways currently has a fleet of 20 Airbus A320 aircraft and has secured a dozen new A321neo on lease for delivery in 2025 and 2026. Chai confirmed that the long-term narrow-body composition of the airline’s fleet should be 30 to 40 aircraft, which would be deployed to serve destinations in Southeast Asia, India, southern China and southern Japan – key medium-haul routes that Thai Airways wants to reinforce.
“We have to concentrate and focus more on the regional routes, which is our, I can say, weak point,” Chai said.
The carrier’s wide-body fleet will also increase from 45 to 56 aircraft by the first quarter of next year, with the additional jets coming on dry lease contracts, which typically do not include crew. The aircraft will be used on long-distance intercontinental routes to Australia and Europe that have seen a strong recovery since the pandemic.
Chai, a former Thai Airways chief financial officer who took over as CEO last November, said the airline’s pandemic-driven restructuring plan was on track and it would relist on the stock market by the first quarter of 2025. He added that if the airline’s performance this year is strong, it could relist earlier.
Thai Airways began bankruptcy protected restructuring of debt worth 400 billion baht ($11.17 billion) in 2021. The carrier’s cabin factor – the percentage of seats sold – was at about 84% in the last quarter, and advance bookings from markets like Europe were looking “promising,” Chai said.
