It had survived on three planes and two destinations: Thai pulls the plug and says goodbye to First Class

It is an interlocal period for First Class. For airlines, Queen Class is an expensive product, which is reflected in exorbitant ticket prices. In addition to this, the comfort and luxury of some business classes have become such that the boundary with First has become blurred, to the detriment of the latter.

Thus, there are companies, such as Saudia, Qatar Airways e Cathay Pacific, which have made it to the lowest terms, as far as availability in their fleet, also thanks to excellent Business products such as the new QSuite and the Air Suite (But both carriers have announced for the future, amazing new booths of First).

And others, such as Lufthansa, Swiss and Air France, which with cabins Allegris, Senses e Premiere 2.0 have chosen to relaunch, and not to drop out of the premier class, although they have definitely elevated their Business product as well.

On the other hand, a carrier that from the beginning of its history (so far virtual, having not yet flown) has associated its name with luxury, as Riyadh Air, intentionally chose to debut without a First Class aboard its 787-9s, preferring instead four Business Elite suites in the first row of the premium cabin, a kind of 'super business class' that is very much in vogue in recent years.

Then there are those who still have First Class, but will drop it. Such is the case with Thai Airways, whose CEO announced that the new Boeing 787-9s which will start arriving from 2028 and around which the Bangkok-based carrier's long-haul business will be structured, will not have a queen class on board, but rather the new Business Class (which has not yet been unveiled and will also be retrofitted on a portion of the Thai carrier's Boeing 777-300ERs) with a Business Plus in the first row of the premium cabin.

And to say that Thai, until the pre-Covid years, First had it on board several of its aircraft: the Airbus A380, the Boeing 747-400 and Airbus A340-600, and the Boeing 777-300ERs. On the Superjumbo the Royal First was in the first three rows of the upper deck, in a 1-2-1 configuration for a total of 12 seats; there were 14 in the 'nose' of the main deck on the Boeing 747-400; and eight in two rows (1-2-1) on the 340-600.

Today only three of the Thai carrier's 17 Boeing 777-300ERs still have First Class with 8 suites in 1-2-1 configuration. These are the three Triple Sevens that arrived in Bangkok most recently, in April 2022 and that They fly exclusively to London Heathrow and Tokyo Haneda, the two most 'premium' routes in the company's network.

They must have felt in Bangkok that keeping a top-notch product in service as far as food & beverage, crockery and flight attendant service for the 'pittance' of 24 seats across the fleet was not worth it, even more so in the new Thai run with a firmer and less 'profligate' hand than the pre-Covid one. So in a couple of years, room for the new Royal Silk Business Class and bye bye to Royal First.

• first class