Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) has disposed of 19 aircraft, is entering into purchase and sale contracts for a further six, and is putting up for sale another 12 aircraft, as the airline's restructuring process continues apace.
In notes accompanying the May 12 release of its first quarter financial results, Thai Airways International disclosed that since entering into the business rehabilitation process, a transitional court-supervised bankruptcy period similar to Chapter 11 that provides the airline with protection from creditors, it has sold ten B747-400s and nine A340s including both the A340-500 and A340-600 variants. The airline says these aircraft are still to be delivered to the buyers.
In addition, Thai Airways says it is in the process of entering into purchase and sale contracts for six B777-300s. ch-aviation research has identified these aircraft as HS-TKA (msn 29150), HS-TKB (msn 29151), HS-TKC (msn 29211), HS-TKD (msn 29212), HS-TKE (msn 29213), and HS-TKF (msn 29214). All six aircraft are currently stored at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Finally, Thai Airways has announced that it wants to sell six B777-200s and six A380-800s. The B777-200s available for sale include HS-TJA (msn 27726), HS-TJB (msn 27727), HS-TJC (msn 27728), HS-TJD (msn 27729), HS-TJG (msn 27732), and HS-TJH (msn 27733). All except HS-TJD are parked at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi. HS-TJD is parked at Bangkok Don Mueang.
After deliberating on whether to return some of their A380-800s to service, Thai Airways elected not to and is now attempting to re-market the planes. The entire six-strong fleet is available for sale, including HS-TUA (msn 87), HS-TUB (msn 93), HS-TUC (msn 100), HS-TUD (msn 122), HS-TUE (msn 125), and HS-TUF (msn 131). According to ch-aviation fleets data, all except HS-TUE and HS-TUF are at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi. The latter two aircraft are parked at Utapao Airport.
These aircraft have been parked since the onset of the pandemic. Since entering the business rehabilitation process, Thai Airways has made concerted efforts to consolidate and downsize its fleet. However, it is re-activating some selected aircraft. In the first quarter of the year, the airline re-activated one B777-200ER. It also plans to introduce two new A350-900s this current quarter. They are OE-IBP (msn 351) currently undergoing maintenance at Lourdes/Tarbes, and OE-IBV (msn 355), also at Lourdes/Tarbes. Thai Airways says it will deploy these planes on flights to Melbourne Tullamarine, Kunming Changshui, Beijing Capital, Chengdu Tianfu, Guangzhou, and Shanghai Pudong, routes where the airline says "passenger demand continues to grow strongly."
