Airbus auction fails to attract bids at Don Mueang

Airbus auction fails to attract bids at Don Mueang

The Airbus A310-222 parked at Don Mueang airport that failed to attract any bids at auction on Wednesday. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)
The Airbus A310-222 parked at Don Mueang airport that failed to attract any bids at auction on Wednesday. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)

The auction of a seized Airbus A310-222 airliner at Don Mueang airport on Wednesday was called off after it failed to attract any interest.

Legal Execution Department scheduled another round of bidding for Sept 27, and lowered the reserve price. 

Law firm Watson Farley and Williams Thailand had the department seize the Airbus, which flew as PC Air, from Asia Konnex Airlines at the airport on Jan 13 last year after it arrived from South Korea.

The aviation broker and services company lost a civil case to the law firm in 2014 and had no other assets for repayment.

The starting price for the 270 seat aircraft was appraised at 30 million baht by the law firm.

A representative of the law firm was present at the airport. When no bidders showed up the department called of the auction and rescheduled it for Sept 27, with the reserve price reduced by 10% to 27 million baht.

Penrawee Masaeng, a specialist on bankruptcy cases for the department, said Asia Konnex Airlines and PC Air president Sakarat Chantraporn were sued for defaulting on payments.

If there were again no bidders on Sept 27, the reserve price would be lowered again and the auction rescheduled, she said. 

The law firm's representative said he did not know what the next step would be if the aircraft failed to attract any bids at all. The firm would discuss that with the department.

The department stipulates the buyer must also pay the plane's 10,700 baht daily parking fee at Don Mueang airport. The accrued charges were currently 4.2 million baht.

PC Air was launched in 2010. It operated only one aircraft and attracted a blaze of publicity as the first airline in Thailand to hire transgender flight attendants. It ceased operations after the plane was impounded at South Korea's Incheon airport in January 2012, leaving its passengers without alternative transport.


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