Thai Airways delays widebody retirements to ease capacity issues

Thai Airways is postponing retiring some of its oldest widebody aircraft to cover delays in its fleet acquisition plans and a capacity crunch caused by Boeing 787 groundings for unschedued engine maintenance. The carrier had planned to retire its remaining Boeing 747-400s over the next few years, VP-alliances and commercial strategy Krittaphon Chantalitanon said. However, it has extended the phaseout “for another year or so,” he said on Oct. 19. Thai has six passenger 747-400s remaining in service after retiring two earlier this year. Of the remainder, one will be phased out in 2019, one in 2020, two in 2021 and two in 2022. Thai may also have to keep some older Boeing 777s in its fleet longer than planned. The carrier must either delay their retirement or phase them out, bringing in leased or used aircraft to provide short-term capacity, Chantalitanon said.<br/>