Thai Airways seeks haircuts from lessors, smaller fleet

Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) has outlined a broad downsizing plan to the lessors, seeking both to renegotiate the existing lease agreements and terminate some of them as the airline looks to slim down its fleet, sources present during a virtual meeting told Cirium. According to the report, the airline will be soliciting offers from lessors regarding potential new terms until November 4, 2020. After that deadline, it will choose the best offers for leases it will retain and seek to return the aircraft not covered by the deals. However, the airline’s representatives did not go into details as to how many aircraft of which type they would seek to retain. Instead, the meeting was meant to “set the stage” for further talks. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Thai Airways dry-leases a total of 27 aircraft, compared to 77 owned aircraft (including retired units in COVID-unrelated storage). The leased fleet comprises eleven A350-900s, eight B777-300(ER)s, six B787-8s, and two B787-9s. Subsidiary Thai Smile (WE, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) dry-leases fifteen of its twenty A320-200s. Thai Airways is undergoing business reorganisation and is currently preparing a restructuring plan for the Central Bankruptcy Court’s approval.