If this turns out to be true.

It is an odd time for an about-face, as THAI is about to receive their fourth and final A340-500 in April; with that aircraft, they have already scheduled increased frequencies on these routes, and are available for booking in the reservation system now; New York goes from 5x Weekly to Daily, and Los Angeles goes from 5x Weekly to 6X Weekly.

I fear though, with the fact that the President of THAI was quoted, and the specifics mentioned in the article, such as New York going to a one-stopper via Beijing or Shanghai, and Los Angeles going to a one stopper via Seoul, the decision has already been made. (I have to wonder, with all the interest recently about the US-China route awarded to United Airlines, does THAI even have fifth-freedom rights to serve the US via China? I kind of think not, as tightly as the Chinese control those routes. Perhaps they would operate with no traffic rights to board and deplane passengers between China and US, effectively making it a technical stop for US originating and terminating passengers?)

Besides the loss of nonstop service, I fear a decline in the level of economy service available on the new routes (if they occur), as they would likely remove the A340-500s (as the article states) and use A340-600, 777-200ER, or 747-400's instead. In the event of any aircraft change away from the A340-500, it appears Economy passengers will be the big losers, facing a reduction in seat pitch, and loss of Premium Economy service all together.

The A340-600 would seem to be the most desirable aircraft on these routes if the aircraft type must get changed, as it would have three-class service, and AVOD for Economy passengers. The 747-400 would still afford the Economy passengers the same seat pitch as the A340-600, but loss of AVOD, instead offering projected screen, forced-selection entertainment viewing . Does anybody know about the 777-200ER? I see it is a 34" seat pitch, same as the A340-600, but does it have AVOD in Economy?

Any ideas of where the A340-500s would be redeployed if they were pulled from the North America routes?