Thai Airways, the flag carrier airline of Thailand, put on sale its whole Boeing 747s fleet, the official air carrier’s website shows.
On November 5, 2020, the air carrier published an official advertisement for aircraft sales on the Thai Aircraft Trading website. The airline is selling all 10 of its Boeing 747-400 jets. The advertisement showed that all the Thai Airways jumbos could be delivered for customers starting from Q2 2021.
The average age of the 10 Boeing 747s is 22 years as the whole fleet was manufactured between 1993 and 2003, the website data shows. Despite having pre-COVID-19 plans to retire all the jumbo jets by 2024, Thai Airways expects to accelerate the process and farewell with the 747 fleet in 2021.
In addition to ten jumbo jets, Thai Airways also put two Boeing 737-400s, six Boeing 777-200s, and six Boeing 777-300s on sale. The air carrier marked that all of the jets were made between 1993 and 2003. The airline also aims to find a new home for 10 Airbus aircraft of which six are Airbus A340-600s, three 340-500s and one A300-600 plane.
The decrease in air travel demand did not bypass Thai Airways either. In September 2020, the airline entered its bankruptcy reorganization following a petition for reorganization filed back in May the same year.
The recent fleet reduction could be assumed as a part of the Thai Airways reorganizing plan. However, it is not clear yet what the new Thai Airways fleet would consist of.