Thai flag carrier Thai Airways International has announced the sale of six Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
Under terms of the Letter of Invitation (LoI) to purchase, potential bidders have until November 21, 2022, to express interest in the deal, the airline said in a letter dated November 7, 2022.
The passenger planes for sale consist of the 26.7-year-old HS-TJA, the 26.5-year-old HS-TJB, the 26.1-year-old HS-TJC, and the 25.9-year-old HS-TJD, the 25.1-year-old HS-TJG and the 24.9-year-old HS-TJH.
According to Planespotters.com, have only flown with Thai Airways and have been temporarily stored since the start of the global pandemic in spring 2020.
The air carrier had initially planned to shrink its fleet due to the pandemic-related downturn in the demand for air travel. In November 2021, Thai announced it would sell a total of 42 passenger aircraft to cut costs as it was going through a bankruptcy-protected restructuring process at the time.
Even though Thai Airways has already found a new home for at least 17 wide-body planes, including 12 Boeing 747s and five Airbus A340s.
However, some of the carrier’s grounded aircraft could be returned to service, with two temporarily parked Boeing 777-200s and three Airbus A330s planned to return to active service early next year. Meanwhile, six of the carrier’s Airbus A380 superjumbos could re-enter passenger flights in 2024, according to Bloomberg.
So far, Thai Airways operates 46 planes, out of which six are marked as stored, the Planespotters.com data indicates.