Sam Drucker

Probably the only hope will be in a few years when THAI starts taking delivery on Boeing 787's, which should give them a more efficient alternative for serving the route than the A340-500's currently present. Those two aircraft types are the only aircraft THAI has currently (or on order) that have the range for the route.

bpe

Could they buy/lease a couple of 777-200LRs? Those aircraft would work pretty well for BKK-LAX.

But if they aren't making enough money on tickets anyway, even a 787 won't be economical.

bernyx

i've only used Thia using miles, but I've been told by some paying customers that they didn't fly thai LAX-BKK in recent years because their price is higher. Unless they're real competitive, who want's to fly through ICN on thai to get to BKK?

A_Lee

TG still has their domestic and regional network, so if your final destination isn't BKK, there's probably still an advantage for selecting TG. Though with the arrival time under the new schedule, connecting flights will be a pain for many.

I'd personally choose OZ all the time over TG if the price was similar and there weren't any other factors, such as schedule. TG has lost a lot of their advantage recently due to them no longer being the bargain they once were. But I imagine that they'll pick up a significant new amount of business with traffic departing or arriving at ICN and not flying the whole route. For those sections of the route, I think TG will still be a better deal than the other *A alternatives.

Sam Drucker

Yes, of course they could. But they've announced no plans to do so, even though they just announced a major fleet purchase last June to cover their aircraft needs through 2018.

I don't follow your point on this statement. The 787 is going to be about 20% more fuel efficient than other aircraft. Certainly more efficient than the current A340-500. Any aircraft is going to suffer from less efficiency on ultra-longhaul flights as it "tankers" more fuel the entire journey for use during the final hours of flight. But a 787 should still do that mission more efficiently than anything else currently flying.

If the route is currently marginally unprofitable for THAI, using a 787 could be the factor that would make it profitable at today's ticket prices (yields).

One other point I should have made in my previous response is that THAI also has A350 aircraft on order. It's probably too early to know what their performance is going to be as far as range and efficiency is concerned, but those aircraft might also eventually be ones that could fly BKK-LAX and BKK-NYC.