Thai Airways puts all B747s, B777-200s, -300s up for sale

Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) has put all of its B747-400s, B777-200s, and B777-300s up for sale in a bid to reduce fleet complexity and raise much-needed cash. According to an announcement, the ten B747-400s, six B777-200s, and six B777-300s will be available for delivery during the second quarter of 2021. All three types were retired by late March 2020, when Thai Airways suspended nearly all operations due to the closure of Thai borders. The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that Thai Airways’ B747-400s are 21.6-years-old on average. Since March, three units have been stored at Utapao and the remainder at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi. Thai Airways also owns another, eleventh B747-400, but it has been stored at Mojave since November 2014. In turn, the carrier’s fleet of B777-200s is 23.9 years old on average. They remain parked at Suvarnabhumi, except for one stored at Bangkok Don Mueang. The -300s are 21.1 years old and are all at Suvarnabhumi airport. The airline is not selling its six B777-200(ER)s or fourteen AC!B77Ws (of which it owns six and leases the remaining eight). Thai Airways has also reiterated its attempts to sell six A340-600s and three A340-500s, which it has been trying – unsuccessfully – to offload for several years. The carrier also put up for sale its last two narrowbodies, B737-400s, which were retired in 2017 and 2018. The third B737-400 owned by Thai Airways, HS-TDD (msn 26611), which has been parked at Utapao airport since 2017, was not listed for sale. Finally, the list of aircraft for sale also includes a 1993 vintage A300-600R. Besides the B777-200(ER)s and -300(ER)s, Thai Airways will also retain fifteen A330-300s, twelve A350-900s, six A380-800s, six B787-8s, and two B787-9s. As such, its active widebody fleet will decrease by around 25% compared to pre-COVID times. In other news, the airline is hoping to reduce its bloated workforce by around 10% after some 1,900 staff signed up for voluntary layoffs, to be implemented in December 2020. Nikkei Asia reported that a further 2,700 workers applied for half-yearly paid leaves, wherein they will receive only 20% of their regular salaries. Facing the ongoing near-total closure of Thailand’s borders, Thai Airways operates a skeleton network mostly for repatriation and cargo purposes.