Thai Airways International plans to adopt four new aircraft, including the first Airbus A321neo.
In the fleet plan, disclosed along with full-year financial results, Star Alliance operators say they will add Boeing 787-9 and A330-300 to the fleet for the year.
This adds to the ongoing efforts to remodel the A320 fleet, inherited from the merger with Thai smiles on the region's wings, in Business class seats.
The first A321neo to be offered this year appears to be from a previous deal. In June 2023, airline Chai Msiri told Flightglobal that the airline had secured leases for five A321neos and secured a lease to the first airline delivered in 2025.
The Thais will later sign another lease agreement with Rentor SMBC Aviation Capital, eight more Twinjet types of Twinjet types to be delivered from 2026.
The Bangkok-based operator is also acknowledging plans to improve the cabin products with the 777-300ers, which Eamsiri first disclosed to the airline in late 2024. The “customer-centric” upgrade shows an old 777 with three refurbished cabin classes: Business, Premium Economy and Economy.
The fleet update comes when Thais see quarterly operating profits reach the affected area highs.
The airline, which is in the final stages of business rehabilitation, reported operating profit of $17.3 billion ($512 million) for the three months ended December 31, 2024. This marked a quarterly passenger revenues up 21% to 43.2 billion BT. The Thais carried 4.5 million passengers in the October-December quarter. This is a record high for business post-pandemic.
However, Thais have suffered a net loss of around BT 42.1 billion as they have suffered losses from debt restructuring and debt conversion as part of their business rehabilitation.
For the full year, Thais reported operating profit of 41.5 billion bt, up 3% year-on-year, and revenues rose 16.7% to 188 billion bt.
