Thai Airways to auction off 34 planes

[reader]

From The Thaiger

Anyone want to buy an airplane? In the midst of tackling bankruptcy, Thai Airways is auctioning off 34 old passenger aircrafts. The aircrafts are around 12 to nearly 30 years old and are sold on an “as-is, where is” condition.

The airline has been strapped for cash.  As part of a debt rehabilitation plan, nearly 5,000 employees – a fourth of Thai Airways staff – applied voluntary resignation. (Basically, they’ve been politely asked to quit.) With a slowdown in travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company has been getting creative to make ends meet.

At their Bangkok headquarters, Thai Airways started selling their in-flight meals on the ground with “flight attendants” serving customers seated in repurposed airplane seats. The airline also started offering flight simulator packages to the public, which was typically only used for pilot training. The airline recently announced a special “heavenly” flight to take off on November 30. The plane will fly over 99 sacred sites in Thailand and passengers will chant Buddhist mantras while in the air.

Now, Thai Airways is selling their old aircrafts. Here’s what they’ve got:

• 2 Boeing B737-400 aircrafts, built in 1992 and 1993
• 1 Airbus A300-600 aircraft, built in 1993
• 3 Airbus A340-500 aircrafts, built around 2005 to 2007
• 6 Airbus A340-600 aircrafts, built around 2005 to 2008
• 10 Boeing 747-400 aircrafts, built around 1993 to 2003
• 6 Boeing B777-200 aircrafts, built around 1996 to 1998
• 6 Boeing B777-300 aircrafts, built around 1998 to 2000

[PeterRS]

THAI has been trying to sell off its A340s for years and I believe it turned down at least one offer some time ago. It bought many of these planes for its North American routes. But being 4 engine gas guzzlers they had to have a much larger business class than usual and pack in as many passengers to make any profit. They rarely succeeded. Hence the routes were cancelled and THAI has been stuck with aircraft that no one in the industry seems to want. Their value now must be a tiny fraction of what THAI paid.