Thai Airways Announces Massive Expansion Plan

Published : February 09, 2010 :: 12:02:36 [ 1,634 views ]

Thai Airways Announces Massive Expansion Plan

The Thai Airways board of directors met on Monday morning to discuss the airlines expansion over the next 15 years. A decision was reached to purchase 15 new aircraft over the next 4 years, expanding the fleet to over 100 planes.

Bangkok, the 8th of February 2010 [PDN]: Thai Airways Chairman Amphon Kittiphong revealed that the airline had agreed on plans to acquire or lease 15 new aircraft between 2010-2014. A budget of 35 billion baht has been allocated for the expansion.

The latest approval followed the previous acquisition of 5 Airbus 330-300’s which will begin operation mid-2010 and the 6 Airbus A-380’s that are on order and will be in operation between 2012-2013.

At the board meeting, it was agreed that with a view to the future, Thai airways would look to acquire seven 300-seat aircraft to be used for regional flight routes and approximately 8 long-haul 350+ seat aircraft to be rented for a period of 10-15 years.

Thai Airlines expansion plans indicated the requirement to have up to 102 aircraft in operation over the next 15 years with 70% of that fleet to be used for less than 10 years. At present Thai airways operates 88 different aircraft, most of which are used for between 11-12 years.

Maintenance and spare-parts budgets were also outlined in Monday’s board meeting with the airline allocating some 922 million baht towards regional route aircraft and 3 billion baht towards their long-haul operations.