After new routes (including Milan), Thai places mega order with Boeing: so it will become a global airline again

The southern square of the airport in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Is an authentic elephant graveyard. There are about 20 wide-body aircraft (including Airbus A380, Boeing 747-400 and Boeing 777) of Thai Airways parked there for a few years now.

But The list of airplanes that Thailand's national airline has grounded over the past five years is much more full-bodied and Includes 6 Airbus A380s, 10 Boeing 747-400s, 14 Boeing 777-200s and -300s, 12 Airbus A330-300s.

If we add them to the 70 jets that make up Thai's fleet today, one can guess what the size of the company was a couple of years before the Covid pandemic, when Thai was among the largest carriers in Far East Asia and was a truly global company, with connections to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania, and North America. One of the ten or so companies in the world to have had the audacity to order the A380, just to be clear.

Financial scandals, corruption and severe debt have 'forced' A restructuring plan that has inevitably led to a downsizing of its fleet and network.

But things, now, would be taking a new direction. Ahead of Summer 2024, Thai has announced three new international routes, including The return to Milan Malpensa with a 787-9 daily (the other two destinations are Oslo and Perth). And, according to Thai media, by the end of February will announce the purchase of as many as 45 Boeing 787s, in an agreement with Boeing that would include an option for 35 more Dreamliners.

Details about the start of aircraft deliveries are not yet known, but the order already appears among those in Boeing's backlog as coming from an 'unspecified customer'. Also unknown is the version of 787 ordered by Thai. Or versions, because the size of the order is such as to suggest that the Thai carrier may have 'spread' the order across multiple versions of the Dreamliner to provide more versatility to the fleet.

At the moment Thai Airways has 8 Boeing 787s in its fleet: six are of the smaller -8 series, with a two-class cabin with 24 seats in Business and 240 in Economy, And two are from the -9 series, with 30 seats in Business and 268 in Economy. The rest of the Long-haul fleet consists of 18 Boeing 777-300ER, 17 Airbus A350-900 and 3 Airbus A330-300 (the latter used on domestic and regional routes).

The 777s are all two-class with 42 seats in Business Class and 306 in Economy Class, except for three aircraft that have a first class cabin of eight seats followed by a Business with 40 seats and an Economy with 255 seats (the latter are used only on connections to London Heathrow w Japan).

Instead, the A350-900s are all in two classes., but with as many as three different seat configurations in Business Class: 12 examples have 32 seats in Business and 289 in Economy, three have 33 seats in Business and 301 in Economy, and two have 30 seats in Business and 309 in Economy.

The average age of these aircraft is very low: B777-300ERs are on average a decade old, A350s just over 6 years old. It is therefore likely to assume. That the 45 787s will, for the most part, join the B777s and A350s, making Thai's long-haul fleet one of the largest in Far East Asia and thus relaunching the carrier's global ambitions.

However, Thailand's English-language online newspaper The Nation speculates that. the company may alienate the 17 A350s currently in the fleet following a dispute over the maintenance costs of Rolls Royce engines. with which they are equipped.

An indiscretion that could be confirmed by the fact that Thai, Rolls Royce's long-standing customer for powering A330s and its older 777s, would choose General Electric engines to power its future 45 Boeing 787s.

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