Thai Airways Adds Boeing 777-300ERs to Meet Increasing Demand

[webfact]

 

by Krajangwit Johjit

    

BANGKOK (NNT) - To meet the increasing demand for flights after the easing of travel restrictions, Thai Airways International (THAI) will add three Boeing 777-300ERs to its fleet by the end of this month.

 

Thai Airways has announced the lease of three Boeing 777-300ERs for its Bangkok-London route, in order to increase capacity and meet rising demand following the lifting of travel restrictions in most countries.

 

According to the airline, two aircraft arrived in Thailand on Wednesday (6 Apr), while the remaining one will be delivered by the end of this month.

 

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The three aircraft will join Thai Airways’ current fleet of 58 planes to provide flight services while the company undergoes financial rehabilitation. According to the airliner, the aircraft lease payment will be power-by-the-hour agreements for the time being. Later phases will see negotiations to adjust payment to reflect the company’s current situation.

 

The new 777-300ERs are expected to enter service by the end of this month.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2022-04-08

 

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[Thailand]

Pointless unless Thailand also does away with travel restrictions.

[clivebaxter]

Very odd, owe millions of dollars, trying to sell stacks of planes and many parked up not used and with passenger levels about 10% of 3 years ago and they want to get further in debt by buying more? seems insane, or as they say is there more to this story which cannot be gone into!

[JoePai]

Why not use one of their 'parked' 777's - or even an A380 if (as they say) the demand is there ?

[richard_smith237]

2 minutes ago, JoePai said:

Why not use one of their 'parked' 777's - or even an A380 if (as they say) the demand is there ?

Agreed... it just seems utterly bonkers that TG would lease 3 new planes when they have numerous wide bodied aircraft sitting in ’tarmac-storage’.

 

Something is very very old about this story... Or, something very underhand is going on at the higher levels and someone is getting richer. 

 

 

[ThailandRyan]

They are probably thinking they will get the High spending folks to part with more money to fly on a newer plane then on one of the older unsightly ones that have sat rotting for 2 years....lack of maintenance comes to mind.  They could have retrofitted the planes they had in the 2 years of downtime they had.....just ludicrous to lease planes.  Wonder if it was approved by the Bankruptcy administrator...

[ezzra]

20 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

Very odd, owe millions of dollars, trying to sell stacks of planes and many parked up not used and with passenger levels about 10% of 3 years ago and they want to get further in debt by buying more? seems insane, or as they say is there more to this story which cannot be gone into!

Nothing new here, TG always operated in a fog of business, are they profitable, are they losing money? selling or buying planes? but like the methodological phoenix, its always manged to rise from its own ashes and ruins...

[aussiexpat]

B777-300ER with GE engines is a fantastic aircraft to lease... however it does raise a serious concern about the maintenance of their current inactive fleet if they need to lease these 3 planes before using their own

 

Edit: if there are problems with their current parked fleet, this is actually a good thing that they choose to lease serviceable aircraft instead

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by aussiexpat

[CharlieH]

Reported post and responses removed.

[ChrisY1]

Are all these aircraft going into regular services....? Check out the aircraft registration...interesting!

[aussiexpat]

The leases for the three brand new B777 were arranged in 2018 and finalized in 2020. So business as usual complying with contractual agreements.

 

These are the first B777 with first class seating, so chasing those 8 quality tourists ????

 

https://www.airfinancejournal.com/articles/3581522/exclusive-boc-aviation-agrees-777-300er-leases

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by aussiexpat

[Excel]

They ordered it to meet demand from whom ? ????

[2long]

14 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

Are all these aircraft going into regular services....? Check out the aircraft registration...interesting!

I wanted to make a similar point, but you did a much better job than I could.

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, clivebaxter said:

Very odd, owe millions of dollars, trying to sell stacks of planes and many parked up not used and with passenger levels about 10% of 3 years ago and they want to get further in debt by buying more? seems insane, or as they say is there more to this story which cannot be gone into!

Well the OP does suggest some leasing arrangement, not purchase. Pity there isn't enough traffic to dust off the A380s.

[aussiexpat]

23 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

Are all these aircraft going into regular services....? Check out the aircraft registration...interesting!

Why is it interesting? Pic shows registration HS-TTA. The aircraft registration code for Thailand is HS so the registration number is as expected (maybe you're mixing it up with the TG flight code?)

[zzaa09]

32 minutes ago, Excel said:

They ordered it to meet demand from whom ? ????

Exactly. 

Their numbers have been consistently dropping for a least a decade. 

The reflective reasoning is obvious - with the exception of the Thai Airways high executive circle who continue to exist in such a fanciful manner. 

[zig]

2 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

They are probably thinking they will get the High spending folks to part with more money to fly on a newer plane then on one of the older unsightly ones that have sat rotting for 2 years....lack of maintenance comes to mind.  They could have retrofitted the planes they had in the 2 years of downtime they had.....just ludicrous to lease planes.  Wonder if it was approved by the Bankruptcy administrator...

They recently announced that they are selling airplane seats to generate some cash. Perhaps the old ones do not have seats anymore so they need to lease new airplanes with seats ????

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, JoePai said:

Why not use one of their 'parked' 777's - or even an A380 if (as they say) the demand is there ?

Maybe the outstanding maintenance on the aircraft parked up isn't up to flying standard, easier to lease 3 more that are serviceable?

[DFPhuket]

Previously, Thai's Boeing 777 aircraft had a nice business class cabin, but never first class. The three new 777s will feature a flagship First Class, which Thai does not offer on its current aircraft. Nearly all carriers are eliminating first class. 

 

Perhaps there is someone in Thailand who travels back and forth to Europe frequently and demands a first-class cabin? That might explain the purchase of new planes while Thai remains in bankruptcy and has other 777's sitting on the ground. 

[mrfill]

2 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

Are all these aircraft going into regular services....? Check out the aircraft registration...interesting!

Check out the names given to the aircraft too.

I understand these were purchased on the suggestion of a frequent flyer who likes his little luxuries. Customer service at its best....  ????

[2long]

I think that members and posters need to look outside of this website and junta-controlled news outlets to get an idea of what some here are hinting at. The reason for purchase and usage of these planes might not be what's officially declared on websites that want to remain in business.

[Enoon]

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

Maybe the outstanding maintenance on the aircraft parked up isn't up to flying standard, easier to lease 3 more that are serviceable?

Aircraft have arrived in fulfillment of an order placed in 2020.

 

Claims that they have been leased, out of neccessity, to cope with a current, "Better than ever", demand, is pure, hyperbolic........"spin".

 

All that is happening is a re-establishment of previous baseline demand.

 

There is really nothing peculiar, controversial or "encouraging" about their arrival at this moment.

 

A Non-story, born out of a coincidence.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Enoon

[richard_smith237]

10 minutes ago, Enoon said:

Aircraft have arrived in fulfillment of an order placed in 2020.

 

Claims that they have been purchased to cope with current, "new dawn", re-growth in demand is pure hyperbole.

 

There is really nothing peculiar, controversial or "encouraging" about their arrival at this moment.

 

A Non-story, born out of a coincidence.

So many other companies called up their Force Majeure clause to extract themselves from pre-covid contractual obligations i.e. the leasing of new air-craft. 

 

Thus: Thailand had an out, unless of corse the aircraft lease has been paid upfront. 

 

Other rumours may hold water... It is the only explanation I can see for such a defiance of financial logic. 

 

 

[ThailandRyan]

Should be some Repossessed Russian leases available on the cheap.

[herfiehandbag]

5 hours ago, JoePai said:

Why not use one of their 'parked' 777's - or even an A380 if (as they say) the demand is there ?

It may be that the costs of bringing any aircraft they own out of storage (especially if they have been less than assiduous in maintaining them which parked up) is less than simply leasing fresh aircraft.

[London Lowf]

During the Phuket Sandbox Thai started directing some of their LHR-BKK flights to HKT instead, but the return still had to be via BKK. However, you can now also do the return HKT-LHR direct - I am booked for October.

 

Maybe they decided that they want to keep this route indefinitely (they are promoting Phuket heavily on their website) but also go back to the pre-Covid schedules for the LHR-BKK flights.

 

And maybe they are planning to do the same with other European routes such as Frankfurt?

 

Another maybe - some travelers, myself included, would increasingly rather avoid transiting the usual Middle Eastern hubs to get to Phuket.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by London Lowf

[herfiehandbag]

50 minutes ago, herfiehandbag said:

It may be that the costs of bringing any aircraft they own out of storage (especially if they have been less than assiduous in maintaining them which parked up) is less than simply leasing fresh aircraft.

I meant of course, cheaper to lease new than refurbish those in store.

 

Having read the thread more carefully I can see the argument about fulfilling a specific requirement!

Edited April 8, 2022 by herfiehandbag

[orchidfan]

7 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

They are probably thinking they will get the High spending folks to part with more money to fly on a newer plane then on one of the older unsightly ones that have sat rotting for 2 years....lack of maintenance comes to mind.  They could have retrofitted the planes they had in the 2 years of downtime they had.....just ludicrous to lease planes.  Wonder if it was approved by the Bankruptcy administrator...

How would the "high spending folks" know one Airbus from another (except the A380) ?

My wife came back on thai on an A350~900. That is both new and nice. 

And A300~ER...?? Give me a break!

As for "rotting"? Some people know nothing about aviation.....especially the many hundreds of aircraft being stored outdoors in deserted locations all around the world.

Most will be airworthy quickly if needed. 

[Felt 35]

I don't understand that this is new isn't this aircraft from mid 90s or maybe its only new in the fleet to Thai Airways????? Maybe not with Thai Airways even if I regularly used Thai Airways abroad twice a year before Covid-19 hit, but I think I previously have been in similar aircraft both with KLM and Finnair however I don't pay to much attention if its called 200ER or 300LR when flying.????

Felt

[natway09]

If they had looked after their beautiful A340's instead of just leaving them to rot they could have used them as at least 2 European carriers are doing.

On of the best aircraft Thai ever owned & because they had an ultra long haul layout perfect for any flight over 10 hours.

Flown at ultimate settings fuel burn is not that much greater