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United Airlines has announced a new addition to its international route network. From February 15th, 2025, the Star Alliance carrier will fly from its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Douglas-Charles Airport (DOM) in Dominica. United Airlines' new service to Dominica will operate once per week. United Airlines will deploy its Boeing 737-700s on the route, marking the first time that the aircraft type will have operated regular commercial services at Douglas-Charles Airport. The facility recently underwent extensive renovations, extending its runway by 6,351 ft, allowing larger aircraft to operate. The latest data from ch-aviation shows that United Airlines currently has 40 737-700s in its fleet, with an average age of more than 25 years old. Each of the 737-700s can carry up to 126 passengers in a two-class configuration - 12 in first class and 114 in economy class (including 36 extra legroom seats). According to Dominica News Online, Dominica's Minister of Tourism, Hon. Denise Charles-Pemberton, celebrated the announcement and spoke of the importance of United Airlines' new route to the island, saying, “The new service by United Airlines is a major step forward toward the island realizing the aggressive goal that it has set for itself and is part of the strategy being pursued in concert with the development of the new international airport. This route will help alleviate the access constraints faced by the destination over the years.”<br/>

Thai Airways International Pcl plans to issue new shares worth at least 42b baht ($1.3b) to creditors and other investors by December, a major step toward exiting a court-monitored debt restructuring and resumption of trading in its shares. The carrier will offer about 6.81b new shares to creditors under a debt-to-equity swap, according to its regulatory filing Monday. These stocks are priced at 2.5452 baht each, valuing the offering at 17.3b baht, it said. Another 9.82b new shares will be for existing shareholders, employees and other investors in a private offering. While the company didn’t specify the share price for this offering in the regulator filing, it said in a separate statement that the stocks will not be priced lower than 2.5452 baht each. The company expects to complete both the share sales by Dec. 31. The Thai flag carrier aims to emerge from its court-monitored debt-restructuring plan in 2025, five years after it filed for bankruptcy protection. The state-controlled airline had posted losses from operations every year from 2013, which were worsened by the Covid pandemic that forced it to seek bankruptcy protection. The airline has benefited from a post-pandemic travel boom, helping boost its earnings and cash flows since 2023. The turnaround has prompted Thai Airways to order a new fleet of Boeing and Airbus jets to expand its services to newer routes and locally. Thai Airways aims to expand its fleet to 116 aircraft by 2027, Chai said, bigger than its pre-Covid size of 103, CEO Chai Eamsiri has said. It expects to operate 79 jets by the end of 2024.<br/>

Thai Airways International will no longer keep its loss-ridden Thai Smile Airways budget airline but will terminate it now that it has transferred a fleet of 20 Airbus A320 planes to THAI, the parent airline's CEO said. THAI CEO Chai Eamsiri (pic) said that after the fleet was transferred to be under operation by THAI, they generated more income than when they were under operation of Thai Smile. The fleet was earlier used on average at no more than nine hours per day under Thai Smile but now their usage has risen to 10.5 hours per day, Chai said recently. He explained that the fleet was used on routes to China and India, so the planes were flown at night for longer hours. Moreover, after the operation of Thai Smile was merged into THAI, the national flag carrier could save costs on procurement and salaries. He said THAI now does not have to shoulder the salaries for the Thai Smile CEO and CFO, so it can save a lot on salary costs. “So we plan to terminate Thai Smile Airways, which is a daughter company owned 100% by THAI, for good instead of keeping it for other purposes,” Chai said.<br/>