Thai Airways may halt flight expansion plans on aircraft shortages

[BANGKOK] Thai Airways International may delay its flight and route expansion plans because the nation’s flag carrier has been unable to acquire enough additional passenger jets.

The airline is scrambling to lease wide-body aircraft for its expanded European service, said chief executive officer Chai Eamsiri. It is relying on leased aircraft as a bridge before the delivery of purchased planes begin in 2027, he said.

Airlines worldwide, grappling with new plane shortages as Boeing and Airbus struggle to meet demand, are being forced to keep older aircraft in their fleets and pay for expensive leases. The aircraft bottlenecks are acting as a constraint on the industry’s growth.

Over the next two years, Thai Airways is eyeing a “significant shortage of seat capacity” needed to meet its growth plan, Chai said on Wednesday (Aug 27). “We will have to halt the opening of new routes and flights if we fail to lease any new wide-body planes by the first half of 2026.”

Thai Airways will add about 17 new narrow-body passenger aircraft by the end of 2026, Chai said. The new planes will mostly be used for service in Asia as the airline accelerates its push to make Bangkok a regional hub for connecting flights to European cities, he said.  

The carrier earned about half of its revenue from Asian routes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. European flights represented a third of its income

Earnings from core operations in the second half of the year are expected to remain “strong” on high passenger demand for European, Indian and Australian flights, according to Chai.

The flag carrier’s second-quarter net income surged to 12.1 billion baht (S$480 million) from 306 million baht a year earlier on lower finance costs and several one-time items, including a gain from the termination of aircraft lease agreements. Revenue rose to 51 billion baht, a 14 per cent jump from a year earlier. BLOOMBERG