Thai reconsiders costly jumbo jet deal
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Thai Airways International seems poised to cancel its order of six A380 superjumbo jets, which it considers unviable for its operations and, at a total cost of about US$1.8 billion, too expensive to fund.
Wallop Bhukkanasut, chairman of TG’s executive board, revealed the national carrier’s revised stance on procuring the world’s largest civil aircraft, which it agreed to purchase back in 2007 when the carrier was struggling to weather its worst financial crisis in 49 years.
“It is not economically viable to have and deploy this aircraft in our network,” Mr Wallop said at the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting being held in Kuala Lumpur.
Airlines operating A380s have found it difficult to achieve the yields they expected due to the global economic crisis, high operating costs and a lack of flexibility in moving the aircraft through airports.
“It is a special mission airplane and can currently operate through eight airports around the world, meaning you can’t put the aircraft on routes as you may wish,” he said. “With Thai’s planned configuration of the A380, the airline must fill 88.8% of 501 seats just to break even.” he said.
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