News Forum - Thai Airways sells five Airbus A340s stored away for 13 years

[Thaiger]

Thai Airways has found a buyer for five dusty Airbus A340s which have gone unused for 13 years. Thailand’s flag carrier has sold one A340-500 and four A340-600 planes for a total of 350 million baht. The transaction is sure to help THAI on their road to financial recovery since the Bankruptcy Court approved a debt restructuring plan for the airline in 2020. The buyer – whose identity remains disclosed – has already signed the paperwork finalising the deal, according to Chief Technical Officer of Thai Airways Cherdphan Chotikhun. The transaction will go through once it is approved by Thailand’s Minister […]

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[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

  On 8/30/2022 at 10:23 AM, Thaiger said:

The buyer – whose identity remains disclosed

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Thai Smile Airline?

[Janneman]

Well, 10 million euros for 5 planes is not much, as long as they are still licensed to fly. They use a lot of fuel but all in all it can be profitable.

[palooka]

Always comes down to money in the bank at the end of the day. This is money in the bank.

[Cabra]

What's holding back international travel is the high cost of airfares. If Thailand was smart the national carriers would put all those planes in the air, with special promotional fares, and start airbusing tourist to Thailand

[HolyCowCm]

  On 8/30/2022 at 11:58 AM, Janneman said:

Well, 10 million euros for 5 planes is not much, as long as they are still licensed to fly. They use a lot of fuel but all in all it can be profitable.

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It is literally nothing for a working plane. 

[Venusianhart]

  On 8/30/2022 at 12:29 PM, Cabra said:

What's holding back international travel is the high cost of airfares. If Thailand was smart the national carriers would put all those planes in the air, with special promotional fares, and start airbusing tourist to Thailand

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Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work like that, anywhere, much less Thailand. Google "Aircraft A-checks" we'll wait...

[Marc26]

  On 8/30/2022 at 11:48 PM, Venusianhart said:

Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work like that, anywhere, much less Thailand. Google "Aircraft A-checks" we'll wait...

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I think his point was to run the capable flying aircrafts at a loss to push tourism 

Although I disagree with him flights are too costly

Sure they went up but they are still pretty affordable, relatively 

[Venusianhart]

  On 8/31/2022 at 12:13 AM, Marc26 said:

I think his point was to run the capable flying aircrafts at a loss to push tourism 

Although I disagree with him flights are too costly

Sure they went up but they are still pretty affordable, relatively 

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Even so, its always chicken and egg with aviation, and then, you cannot just turn on the taps overnight.

Bringing fleets back to pre Covid levels will take up to two years, assuming we don't plunge into a global depression any day now. 

There's a backlog of D checks, there's new staff to train, pilots to re-certify, and all the infrastructure to do this is STILL being impacted by Covid illness. It hasn't gone away, won't ever go away, and ignoring it doesn't stop people (aviation workers) from getting sick for a week or longer. 

Aviation is not the glamorous working holiday it used to be either. Almost none of the old schoolers went back to it after being laid off. 

So there's lots of new people who have no idea, further causing delays to returning to pre Covid efficiency. 

If Cabras plan was doable, they'd be doing it! 

[KaptainRob]

  On 8/30/2022 at 11:58 AM, Janneman said:

Well, 10 million euros for 5 planes is not much, as long as they are still licensed to fly. They use a lot of fuel but all in all it can be profitable.

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14 year old aircraft, last serviced ~7 or 8 years ago are not airworthy and will require expensive maintenance before they can take off.  Perhaps Russia bought them for spare parts or put into service, after all, they have the fuel to burn! 

[Cabra]

  On 8/30/2022 at 11:48 PM, Venusianhart said:

Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work like that, anywhere, much less Thailand. Google "Aircraft A-checks" we'll wait...

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The aircraft being sold where not in service. And you know for certain that the planes sold where never checked per required while in service? Doubtful. And the buyer of said old planes is not going to be able to subsequently put them in service for themselves? Again doubtful. Someone is going to fly those planes. If the national carrier wants to help revive the countries tourism section, they should fly those planes and bring in the tourist. That's exactly how it works. 

[Dialemco]

Aircraft laid up for so many years are unlikely to be worth the cost of making them airworthy so this is probably B/S