Thai Airways continues its scatter-gun fleet policy, with the delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome “Phatthana Nikhom”, #ThaiAirways‘ #Boeing787-9, who’ll soon fly to #ChiangMai, #Phuket, and #Singapore. pic.twitter.com/Ejn2a4iymx
— Thai Airways (@ThaiAirways) September 18, 2017
Thai Airways currently have six Boeing 787-8s in its fleet (leased from AerCap), and so-far, this singular Boeing 787-9 which is leased from ILFC.
As you can see from the tweet, the airline intends to operate the Boeing 787-9 on domestic and regional routes to Chiang Mai, Phuket and Singapore – hardly anything to make a Boeing 787-9 into a sweat.
The aircraft will be configured in with 30 business class seats and 268 economy class seats – making for 298 seats in total aboard the 787-9.
Now, I’m having a little trouble working out Thai Airways fleet strategy (but then again… I’d like to find a person who can work out this strategy). Whilst there is commonality between the 787-8 and 787-9, having one extra aircraft joining the fleet doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (which is technically a different type).
In fact, one could describe Thai’s fleet strategy as a scatter-gun, with the majority of the types they operate limited to six planes (A350, A380, Boeing 777-200, 777-200ER, 777-300).
The only fleets the airline has in serious numbers are the A330 fleet (15 frames), the Boeing 777-300ER fleet (14 frames) and the Boeing 747-400 fleet (10 frames).
Whilst diverse types can mean for interesting operations – customers do expect a level of passenger experience from these aircraft, and Thai’s habit of chopping and changing planes into different schedules doesn’t help at all.
Header image – Tweet of the launch of Thai Airways Boeing 787-9 – Image, Thai Airways via Twitter.
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