Thai Airways secures added A350s

Thailand's Really Cool Airlines eyes Airbus widebodies - CEO

Thai VietJetAir to be an all Boeing airline by 2024

Thai VietJetAir (VZ, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) is preparing to radically restructure both its network and fleet as it moves to phase out its Airbus aircraft and bring in Boeing planes while also switching from a domestic to international focus.

Speaking at Routes Asia 2023 recently, CEO Woranate Laprabang said revenue increased by 100% in 2022 and he expects to see a similar result this year. Already, the low-cost carrier is pivoting away from its traditional Thai domestic market, with Thai VietJet also now flying to Viet Nam, Japan, China, Cambodia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Nonetheless, currently nine out of the airline's top ten busiest routes (when measured by available seat kilometres (ASKs) and flight frequencies) are domestic, with only one international route - Bangkok Suvarnabhumi - Da Nang, coming in at eighth place on both metrics. However, Woranate expects ASKs on international sectors to increase by 35% this year, and 300% when the full network restructuring is completed later this decade.

The CEO also confirmed that the existing fleet of twelve A320-200s and...

Thai Smile merger with Thai Airways under consideration

Thai Airways eyes early exit from business rehabilitation

Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) is around 70% through its business rehabilitation plan and expects to formally exit the process early in 2024 and then relist on the Thai stock exchange no later than 2025, according to the airline's new CEO.

Chai Iamsiri, formerly the CFO at Thai Airways, took over the CEO's role on February 1, 2023. Last week, at a media briefing, he said the airline had returned to profitability in mid-2Q22 and had generated revenues of approximately THB90 billion baht (USD3.8 billion dollars) in calendar 2022. This year, Chai is expecting revenues to grow by 40%.

"Thai’s crisis has passed and it is entering an era of steadily generating revenue for sustainable growth," he said. The original plan was to exit the business rehabilitation process in late 2024, but this will be brought forward with an eye to relisting sometime in 2025.

Bangkok's Central Bankruptcy Court approved Thai's business rehabilitation plan in September 2020. At the time, the airline's liabilities were THB338.9 billion (USD14.3 billion) and total assets were THB298.9...