Thai Airways International Airbus A380-800 Inaugural Flight Takes Off To Hong Kong

[webfact]

THAI Airbus A380-800 inaugural flight takes off to Hong Kong

BANGKOK, Oct 6 -The first of Thai Airways International (THAI)’s Airbus A380-800 jetliners inaugurated the first commercial services on Saturday with a flight to Hong Kong.Thai Airways International

Transport Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan has presided over the ceremony with the inaugural flight TG 600 Bangkok-Hong Kong. He said passengers have given good response to the new aircraft as the 507 seats were fully booked and reservations to fly on the Airbus A380-800 were in high demand.

Chokchai Panyayong, THAI Executive Vice President for Strategy and Business Development Department, said that seats for Airbus A380-800 flight to Hong Kong in October were around 75-80 percent booked while flight to Singapore were around 60-65 percent reserved.

The first of THAI’s six Airbus A380-800 jetliners has been delivered to the national flag carrier on September 29 from the Airbus assembly plant in Toulouse, France. The aircraft was named "Sri Rattana" by HM the King.

THAI is the ninth airline to receive what is billed as the world's largest and most eco-efficient aircraft.

THAI entered the aircraft into service on October 6 for the Bangkok-Hong Kong and Bangkok-Singapore routes. After the second Airbus A380-800 aircraft is delivered in November, the two aircraft will be used for the Bangkok-Frankfurt and Bangkok-Hong Kong routes from mid December.

In January 2013, when the third aircraft is delivered, the service will expand to include Bangkok-Narita Japan, and the fourth aircraft will service the Bangkok-Paris route starting next February. The remaining two aircraft will be delivered late next year.

The THAI version of the Airbus A380-800 offers a total of 507 seats in three classes - 12 seats in Royal First Class, 60 seats in Royal Silk Class (Business Class) and 435 seats in Economy Class. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-10-06

[dcutman]

What are the monthly payments on these 290 million dollar baby's? X 6, ouch!

[BrianCR]

No problem, they exchanged them for rice!!!

[Boater]

Looked at there site , and no mention of the a380 , tried to book bangkok to Hong Kong in November , and no mention of the a380 in service ?

[zydeco]

Don't want anything to do with this inefficient, unproductive, loss leading airline.

[trainman34014]

And how many of those 'booked' seats has actually been paid for?

[KireB]

Looked at there site , and no mention of the a380 , tried to book bangkok to Hong Kong in November , and no mention of the a380 in service ?

Does a website of a good managed company have to be up-to-date then?

[asiawatcher]

Close enough is good enough and agree with the OP, how many seats were paid and how many fat cats got a freebie and how many were return trips, what was the back load figures??? Already operating at a loss on the first flight I bet. Media PR does not make any business profitable.

[AliasJohn]

Close enough is good enough and agree with the OP, how many seats were paid and how many fat cats got a freebie and how many were return trips, what was the back load figures??? Already operating at a loss on the first flight I bet. Media PR does not make any business profitable.

No matter what the news is...there are always you guys who knock everything...You think this does not happen in your home country? Why knock everything in Thailand? I have lived here for only 6 years and yes it has its frustrating times, however I would prefer here to my very own country Australia which is a fantastic country. Give it break!

[shunima]

Looked at there site , and no mention of the a380 , tried to book bangkok to Hong Kong in November , and no mention of the a380 in service ?

Does a website of a good managed company have to be up-to-date then?

You guys shure how to use "the interwebs"?

[LuckyLew]

Yup, seats fully booked ... all seats booked and reserved with comp. coupons no doubt

[Nisa]

No matter what the news is...there are always you guys who knock everything...You think this does not happen in your home country? Why knock everything in Thailand? I have lived here for only 6 years and yes it has its frustrating times, however I would prefer here to my very own country Australia which is a fantastic country. Give it break!

It is like a race to who can appear the most idiotic and scream the loudest about their self insecurities of being inferior that they even find ways to feed into each other lack of wit and knowledge about a story regarding an upgraded modern plane being added to an airline's fleet that that been profitable nearly every of its existence and in fact up until 2008 had 40 straight years of profits ... but hey, whatever it takes to make some people's boat float ... me on the other hand, I wish THAI continued success and looking forward to my next trip that will allow me a chance on their A380.

[lomatopo]

Some interesting links...It looks like HS-TUA may also be on BKK-SIN?

http://www.hflight.net/forums/topic/10036-airbus-a380-%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A2-%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B7%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%93%E0%B8%A0%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B4/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11331488@N00/

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/hs-tua/

http://www.ausbt.com.au/review-thai-airways-airbus-a380-royal-silk-business-class-seats

[hellodolly]

Are there costs going to be cheaper as they are the most efficient plane being made now? Or so the claim was.

[whybother]

Close enough is good enough and agree with the OP, how many seats were paid and how many fat cats got a freebie and how many were return trips, what was the back load figures??? Already operating at a loss on the first flight I bet. Media PR does not make any business profitable.

It may be operating at a loss for the HK flight, but it's only flying there temporarily (a month) before it starts flying to Frankfurt. I would expect that there would be a lot of people that would fly to HK just to try it out, so it might not do too bad for the month.

[Skywalker69]

Should have seats enough for all th MP´s going to meet Thaksin.

[Curt1591]

Should have seats enough for all th MP´s going to meet Thaksin.

If people would ignore him, he would go away!

[whybother]

Should have seats enough for all th MP´s going to meet Thaksin.

If people would ignore him, he would go away!

No he wouldn't. He'd just be meeting with PTP MPs without it being reported.

[Fozfromoz]

Should have seats enough for all th MP´s going to meet Thaksin.

If people would ignore him, he would go away!

No he wouldn't. He'd just be meeting with PTP MPs without it being reported.

its really amazing how a story about an inaugural revenue flight on a new aircraft on a National flag carrier gets turned so Thaksin gets mentioned.

I wish Thai Airways all the best.

[whybother]

its really amazing how a story about an inaugural revenue flight on a new aircraft on a National flag carrier gets turned so Thaksin gets mentioned.

I wish Thai Airways all the best.

Unfortunately, the flight just happened to coincide with the MPs trip to visit Thaksin.

[Gweiloman]

Should have seats enough for all th MP´s going to meet Thaksin.

If people would ignore him, he would go away!

No he wouldn't. He'd just be meeting with PTP MPs without it being reported.

its really amazing how a story about an inaugural revenue flight on a new aircraft on a National flag carrier gets turned so Thaksin gets mentioned.

I wish Thai Airways all the best.

Shows how farangs are more obsessed with Thaksin than the locals. Sad, really

[Mosha]

Close enough is good enough and agree with the OP, how many seats were paid and how many fat cats got a freebie and how many were return trips, what was the back load figures??? Already operating at a loss on the first flight I bet. Media PR does not make any business profitable.

It may be operating at a loss for the HK flight, but it's only flying there temporarily (a month) before it starts flying to Frankfurt. I would expect that there would be a lot of people that would fly to HK just to try it out, so it might not do too bad for the month.

Air France flew CDG-LHR for a month with theirs, United Airlines are using the 787 in domestic flights, it is a quick and easy way of training flight/cabin crews.

[yoshiwara]

Close enough is good enough and agree with the OP, how many seats were paid and how many fat cats got a freebie and how many were return trips, what was the back load figures??? Already operating at a loss on the first flight I bet. Media PR does not make any business profitable.

It may be operating at a loss for the HK flight, but it's only flying there temporarily (a month) before it starts flying to Frankfurt. I would expect that there would be a lot of people that would fly to HK just to try it out, so it might not do too bad for the month.

People have been able to fly to Hong Kong using the A380 for some time now on a daily flight provided by Emirates which is also cheaper than Thai Airlines both for economy and business class seats.

[Nickymaster]

Are there costs going to be cheaper as they are the most efficient plane being made now? Or so the claim was.

If you stuff 800 people in an A380 the operating cost per seat might be less than on a Boeing 747-800 with 500 people on board.

That's how Airbus marketed the plane in its early days. Can fit 800 people!! Well it (practically) can't. It can hardly fit more people than the Boeing 747-800.

Economically the A380 doesn't make a lot of sense for most airlines. It’s more a FACE and marketing thing. IMO Thai should not have bought the 6 planes. Flying this kind of plane to HK doesn't make sense. You should stuff it and make 15 hour flights (non-stop for 20 years) for it to make money.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Nickymaster

[whybother]

Are there costs going to be cheaper as they are the most efficient plane being made now? Or so the claim was.

If you stuff 800 people in an A380 the operating cost per seat might be less than on a Boeing 747-800 with 500 people on board.

That's how Airbus marketed the plane in its early days. Can fit 800 people!! Well it (practically) can't. It can hardly fit more people than the Boeing 747-800.

Economically the A380 doesn't make a lot of sense for most airlines. It’s more a FACE and marketing thing. IMO Thai should not have bought the 6 planes. Flying this kind of plane to HK doesn't make sense. You should stuff it and make 15 hour flights (non-stop for 20 years) for it to make money.

It's only using the HK flight for training purposes. It's changing it to Frankfurt at the end of the month (or sometime soon, anyway).

Which airline has a 747 seat configuration for 500? Most have less than 400.

[Ricardo]

Are there costs going to be cheaper as they are the most efficient plane being made now? Or so the claim was.

If you stuff 800 people in an A380 the operating cost per seat might be less than on a Boeing 747-800 with 500 people on board.

That's how Airbus marketed the plane in its early days. Can fit 800 people!! Well it (practically) can't. It can hardly fit more people than the Boeing 747-800.

Economically the A380 doesn't make a lot of sense for most airlines. It’s more a FACE and marketing thing. IMO Thai should not have bought the 6 planes. Flying this kind of plane to HK doesn't make sense. You should stuff it and make 15 hour flights (non-stop for 20 years) for it to make money.

The A380 takes 800ish in all-economy configuration, whereas Boeing say the B747-800 takes 465 in a typical 3-class configuration, one needs to compare like-with-like.

Up to the airline what it thinks best fits its routes/needs.

i can see Thai using a few A380s on BKK-FRA/LHR/SYD profitably, but they also have plenty of other routes, which might suit the B777-300 or B787 or A350.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/747-8_background.html

[Mosha]

Are there costs going to be cheaper as they are the most efficient plane being made now? Or so the claim was.

If you stuff 800 people in an A380 the operating cost per seat might be less than on a Boeing 747-800 with 500 people on board.

That's how Airbus marketed the plane in its early days. Can fit 800 people!! Well it (practically) can't. It can hardly fit more people than the Boeing 747-800.

Economically the A380 doesn't make a lot of sense for most airlines. It’s more a FACE and marketing thing. IMO Thai should not have bought the 6 planes. Flying this kind of plane to HK doesn't make sense. You should stuff it and make 15 hour flights (non-stop for 20 years) for it to make money.

It's only using the HK flight for training purposes. It's changing it to Frankfurt at the end of the month (or sometime soon, anyway).

Which airline has a 747 seat configuration for 500? Most have less than 400.

Just wait until Ryanair get one.

[Nickymaster]

Are there costs going to be cheaper as they are the most efficient plane being made now? Or so the claim was.

If you stuff 800 people in an A380 the operating cost per seat might be less than on a Boeing 747-800 with 500 people on board.

That's how Airbus marketed the plane in its early days. Can fit 800 people!! Well it (practically) can't. It can hardly fit more people than the Boeing 747-800.

Economically the A380 doesn't make a lot of sense for most airlines. It’s more a FACE and marketing thing. IMO Thai should not have bought the 6 planes. Flying this kind of plane to HK doesn't make sense. You should stuff it and make 15 hour flights (non-stop for 20 years) for it to make money.

It's only using the HK flight for training purposes. It's changing it to Frankfurt at the end of the month (or sometime soon, anyway).

Which airline has a 747 seat configuration for 500? Most have less than 400.

"Which airline has a 747 seat configuration for 500? Most have less than 400"

Most have around 420-450 seats in the 747-800. I use the plane often en route to Europe.

For the A380, the maximum configuration is around 500 at the moment. There are reports on line that compare the 2 planes. The boeing seems to be the cheapest to operate apples for apples.

Edited October 9, 2012 by Nickymaster

[whybother]

"Which airline has a 747 seat configuration for 500? Most have less than 400"

Most have around 420-450 seats in the 747-800. I use the plane often en route to Europe.

For the A380, the maximum configuration is around 500 at the moment. There are reports on line that compare the 2 planes. The boeing seems to be the cheapest to operate apples for apples.

There are a couple with A380 configurations as high as 540.

[BKS22]

I flew on one of Cathay Pacifics first Airbus A380's from LAX to HK and I was sold! I just came in to Dubai on an Emirates A380 from JFK. In today's age of stressful, crappy customer service flying...I find it a luxurious delight, even if you are in coach. A technological masterpiece by man to get something this size and complex into the air safely with so many passengers. If possible I will always try to book the main leg of my international trips aboard one of these. True Cadillac's of the sky in my opinion.