|
|
| • EXCH RATES |
|
Baht/$ 33.35/39
Bid/Ask
|
GOLD |
14,650
- 50
|
|
Fuel costs land those longer than 15 hours
BOONSONG KOSITCHOTETHANA
The days of ultra long-haul air services _ those non-stop flights lasting more than 15 hours _ may be over for several carriers.
Thai Airways International (THAI) has suffered from prohibitive jet fuel prices of more than US$170 a barrel, which have made the long distance flights, such as THAI's doomed Bangkok-New York service, a commercial disaster.
Even though aircraft seats have been filled to capacity, spiralling oil prices have put the flights in the red. THAI has removed the ultra long-haul from its system with the suspension of its three routes that fall into category _ Bangkok-New York, Bangkok-Los Angeles and Bangkok-Auckland.
''The era of ultra long-haul flights has come to an end,'' THAI executive vice-president Pandit Chanapai told the Bangkok Post.
THAI is among only 11 international airlines that offers extra-long scheduled passenger flights with specially designed aircraft.
THAI's non-stop daily Bangkok-New York, which was introduced in May 2005, stopped on July 1, while the non-stop daily Bangkok-Los Angeles and the five-time-a-week Bangkok-Auckland flights are to be suspended in October.
New York was practically taken out of THAI's network, while the airline would continue to serve Los Angles and Auckland but make intermediate stops in Osaka and Sydney or Melbourne, respectively, to improve passenger revenues by picking up more traffic from those stopovers.
However, the frequencies on the Bangkok-Los Angeles route via Osaka would also be reduced from seven flights a week to five.
One of key problems that doomed THAI's non-stop US-bound flights is the limited seating capacity of the four-engine Airbus A340-500s. The plane can only carry 215 seats with 60 in the business-class.
Hauling more than 210,000 litres of fuel over long distances also undermines the fuel economy. It takes about 17 hours to fly non-stop from Bangkok to New York and about the same for Bangkok-Los Angeles _ a distance of some 13,000 km on each route.
The flag carrier estimated that continuing the non-stop New York and Los Angeles routes would cause it to lose 120 million a year.
Fuel on THAI's Bangkok-New York flight makes up 55% of its operating costs, exceeding the 34% average.
When the ultra long-haul flights to New York were taking shape on THAI's drawing board in 2003, jet fuel was 82 US cent per gallon, but since then they have zoomed to $1.62 in 2005 when the flights began. Fuel surged to $2.20 in 2007 before skyrocketing to more than $4.00 _ killing the economics of the service, Mr Pandit said.
While abandoning the ultra long-haul strategy, THAI is now focused on regional operations where it believes it can grow businesses,according to Mr Pandit.
But the suspension of the ultra long-haul flight has created another headache for THAI to dispose its four A340-500s that serve shorter routes economically.
With the New York flights now terminated, THAI needs less than two of the A340-500s to continue flying the non-stop Bangkok-Los Angeles flights until October.
That means that the two other A340-500 jets are being grounded.
Instead of A340-500s, the airline plans to use its six Boeing 777-200ERs to operate the Los Angles flights via Osaka.
The airline has not yet found a buyer for the long-range A340-500 jets, which have a listed price of about $180 million each.
Executives said there are a few airlines showing interest in buying the THAI aircraft. They hoped that because of the relatively young age of A340-500s, just three years old, those jetliners should not be left on the tarmac for too long.
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Next
