Thai Airways International aims to finalise a deal to buy at least 30 new aircraft by the end of the year and could double its fleet of narrow-body jets over the next decade, chief executive Chai Eamsiri said on Friday.
The airline will issue a “request for proposal” to Airbus and Boeing to buy 30 wide-body and an undisclosed number of narrow-body aircraft next week, Mr Chai said in an interview with Reuters at the airline’s headquarters in Bangkok.
The national carrier first announced plans to acquire 30 new planes earlier this month at an International Air Transport meeting in Istanbul.
It is looking to cash in on a post-pandemic travel boom by bolstering regional routes, but there have been concerns about whether Airbus and Boeing will be able to ramp up output to meet delivery targets.
THAI, which began bankruptcy-protected restructuring of debt worth 400 billion baht in 2021, currently has a fleet of 20 Airbus A320 aircraft and has secured a dozen new A321neo planes on lease for delivery in 2025 and 2026, Mr Chai said.
“The long-term narrow-body composition of our fleet should be 30-40 aircraft,” he said.
These aircraft would be deployed to serve destinations in Southeast Asia, India, southern China and southern Japan — key medium-haul routes that THAI wants to reinforce.
“We have to concentrate and focus more on the regional routes, which is our, I can say, weak point,” Mr Chai said.
The carrier’s wide-body fleet will also increase from 45 currently to 56 aircraft by the first quarter of next year, with the additional jets coming on dry-lease contracts, which typically do not include crew, he said.
“That’s for the short term,” Mr Chai said, adding that the aircraft will be used on long-distance intercontinental routes to Australia and Europe that have seen a strong recovery since the pandemic.
Thai Airways’ cabin factor — the percentage of seats sold — was about 84% in the first quarter and advance bookings from markets like Europe were looking “promising”, he said.
Mr Chai, a former chief financial officer who took over as CEO last November, said the airline’s pandemic-driven restructuring plan was on track and it would relist on the Stock Exchange of Thailand by the first quarter of 2025.
“If we can do it earlier, we will do it,” he said. “But it depends on the performance this year also.”
The CEO said earlier that the airline was expected to earn at least 130 billion baht in revenue this year, after its net profit in the first quarter reached 12.5 billion baht.