LONDON – Thailand’s flag carrier, Thai Airways (TG), has just announced they are looking for new homes to six of their Boeing 777-200 aircraft. The airframes in question have always stayed with the carrier, though been temporarily grounded since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out.

Interest expression deadline

In a recent release by Thai Airways, the carrier announced that they are seeking to divest six Boeing 777-200 aircraft which have remained grounded since the outbreak of Covid-19 in March of 2020.

In a letter issued November 7th, Thai Airlines has the terms of the Letter of Interest (LOI) set with an interest expression deadline to November 21 for the six airframes.

The airframes in question are:

• HS-TJA
  • 26.7 years old
• HS-TJB
  • 26.5 years old
• HS-TJC
  • 26.1 years old
• HS-TJD
  • 25.9 years old
• HS-TJG
  • 25.1 years old
• HS-TJH
  • 24.9 years old

Fleet reduction since Covid-19

Due to problems of the Covid-19 pandemic, Thai Airways saw a need to shrink their fleet size, and in November of 2021, the carrier announced the plans of selling 42 aircraft in total, in order to cut costs as the airline was going through bankruptcy protected processes at that time.

Despite this, Thai Airways found new owners for 17 wide-boy aircraft, with 12 747-400s and 5 A340s being the aircraft types in question.

Though, there are still aircraft grounded because of the pandemic, with two Boeing 777s and three Airbus A330s scheduled for a return to service by next year. And as for Thai’s Airbus A380 SuperJumbo’s, they could enter scheduled service later, in 2024, according to reports from Bloomberg.

Thai Airways struggles with bankruptcy

It’s no secret that the Thai flag carrier has been struggling for the past years, with extra struggles during the Covid-19 pandemic, and just three months ago, the carrier received a $2.2 billion (80 billion Thai Baht) financial aid as a saviour from the airline going further into its bankruptcy ordeal.

Meanwhile, Thai Airways International will receive major financial backing from the government for its 80 billion baht ($2.2 billion) capital raise and debt-for-equity swap plan to save the carrier from bankruptcy.

Thai previously filed for bankruptcy in 2020 after losses from 2013, but did however see a small growth in cash flow as well as loan reductions, as global air transport picked up earlier this year.

Fourth best airline crew & staff in Asia

Despite battling bankruptcy protection, a global pandemic and the troubles that caused the entirety of the aviation industry to struggle, Thai Airways was recently voted to fourth place in Asia’s best airline crew and staff.

Apart from this recognition, THAI’s world class service standard is also apparent through its excellent service mind and quality. This also allowed the airline to claim other Skytrax recognitions, including: 8th in World’s Best Airport Services; 8th in Best Economy Class Airline Catering; and 10th in Best First Class Airline Lounges in 2022.

Overall

Thai Airways seem to be taking careful measures in a path to where they try returning to a profitable company. Parking planes cost the airlines money and is not a profitable thing.

However, the sale of these six Boeing 777-200s are yet to be completed, and it remains unknown wether they will complete the six sales or not. Though, it is a great move by the carrier as it can most likely will reduce costs by a great amount, unless Thai has been offered free parking by the airport themselves.