THAI to sell 32 aircraft

THAI president Charamporn Jotikasthira said the airline’s board members yesterday initially approved the sale 14 planes this year. They are four Airbus A330-300s, six Airbus A340-600s and four Boeing 747-400s. The aircraft will be placed on the market by mid this year. 

He added that the management will also ask the board members to approve the sale of eight more Boeing 747-400 aircraft in June and expects that they will go on the market in the last quarter of this year. 

Last year, THAI’s put 20 aircraft on the market, and 10 have been sold so far, with the remaining to be added to the aircraft up for sale this year. 

Charamporn said the aircraft were being sold as part of the airline’s plan to cut its costs, rehabilitate financially as well as reduce its routes. THAI also took delivery of two new Boeing 777, while two Boeing 787 and two Airbus 320 are scheduled to arrive later this year. 

With these adjustments, the airline will this year have 77 aircraft in its fleet, not including the 20 being used by its subsidiary Nok Air. Also, these adjustments will bring the average age of the aircraft in the fleet down to 7.8 years, which should boost the airline’s competitiveness and efficiency compared to 2013.

Charamporn said the airline would continue to cut and/or revise 15 to 20 per cent of its routes. It has already changed some 10 routes so far, such as cutting the Bangkok-Johannesburg route this month. It is planning to stop flying the Bangkok-Moscow route because this service has been losing the airline Bt200 million to Bt300 million per year since it opened in 2009. THAI will also cut the Bangkok-Madrid route in September. 

It will also revise or adjust flight times on many routes such as United Kingdom, Paris and Germany by using bigger aircraft, such as the Airbus A380. THAI’s management believes the adjustment of its fleet and routes would help it turn a profit by the end of this year. 

Charamporn said the projected revenue for this year would be Bt170 billion, lower than the Bt185 billion earned last year, though overall losses will be lower. 

According to Charamporn, the board also discussed this year’s budget, which is being audited by Office of the Auditor-General. 

THAI is also set to focus more on business strategies and will focus on six priorities, namely market size and potential, aircraft type and routing, onboard products, operating cost, marketing and promotion, and sales.