After a 4-year absence, Thai Airways' Milan-Bangkok has restarted.
It took off more than an hour and a half late, due to a very violent cloudburst that hit [...]
Thai Airways
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Thailand
It took off more than an hour and a half late, due to a very violent cloudburst that hit Malpensa, the Inaugural flight between Milan and Bangkok, operated non-stop by Thai Airways, marking the Thai carrier's return to the northern Italian airport. After an absence of four years.
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The link opera on a daily basis with takeoff from Malpensa at 2:05 p.m. and arrival in Bangkok just before 6 a.m. the next morning, while from the Thai capital it takes off forty minutes after midnight to be in Milan at 7:35 a.m. the same day.
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On the Thai route Thai has scheduled a Boeing 787-8, the smallest of the long-range aircraft in its fleet, offering 22 seats in Business and 234 in Economy.
Unlike that found on the more grade 787-9 and on a portion of the A350s in Thai's force, the 787-8s have in Business a 2-2-2 configuration which is rather detrimental in terms of privacy, personal space, and aisle access (in the latter case for passengers sitting near the windows).
At the ceremony and ribbon cutting preceding the departure were present for Thai Rithavee Plikarnon, Teal Leader France, Italy, Belgium and UK, Armando Muccifora, Area Sales Manager for Southeastern Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa, and Alessandro Falasconi, Marketing Manager for Italy.
Representing SEA Milan Airports was there Aldo Schmid, Aviation Marketing Negotiations & Traffic Rights Manager, who pointed out that "last year, despite the absence of a direct flight, between Milan and Bangkok 150,000 people moved, 200,000 between Milan and Thailand and our hope is that with this new connection we can soon return to pre-Covid numbers, which were 200,000 and 250,000 travelers a year, respectively."
Numbers that seem within reach if, as Thai's marketing manager for Italy, Alessandro Falasconi, told The Flight Club, "flights are filled to capacity from now until September, and it is very likely that for the peak season of the travel to Thailand, which begins in December, we may see a machine change from the Boeing 787-8 to the larger Airbus A350-900, which offers more seats in both Business (30 or 33, ed.) and Economy (301 or 309,ed.)."
The classes will still remain two, because Thai Airways' '2024 version' (which has grounded all its 747-400s and Airbus A380s) offers an 8-seat First Class cabin on board only 3 of its Boeing 777-300ERs.
The Thai carrier a few months ago had Announced an order for as many as 45 Boeing 787s (plus a significant number of options), thus relaunching its ambitions to expand into long-haul markets after a downturn that, accomplice to an internal restructuring process first and Covid later, has lasted practically a decade.
Before the end of 2024, Oslo and Brussels will join Milan among the new European routes.
The first 787 of the maxi-order placed in February is expected in 2027 but Area Sales Manager for Southeast Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa, Armando Muccifora, anticipates that "in these three years our fleet will still expand, to support our growth in intercontinental markets, thanks in part to aircraft ordered but then not taken delivery of by other airlines, such as the 787-9 that arrived last month for the purchase of which we took over an order that Chinese Hainan Airlines had placed."