eponymous_coward

Define "works fine".

Oh, and if it "works fine", how is it that Lion Air, Jetstar, AirAsia, Tiger Airways are the ones who've added a huge number of all-Y narrowbodies the past 20 years, as opposed to those other airlines you've mentioned growing THEIR domestic/shorthaul fleets by a few hundred planes combined? You'd think that if the traditional model of J/Y for shorthaul regional travel (often done in longhaul planes like A300s, 747s and so on) was that lucrative that LCCs wouldn't be getting the lion's share of growth.

There's probably 500-1000 narrowbodies in that region that weren't there before... and I would say the legacy APAC airlines have been caught as flat-footed by LCC competition as airlines in the USA were by WN, and airlines in Europe were by FR, otherwise they would be flying a lot more of them.

Aussie_flyer

There is no doubt that LCC's are very popular but Thai have replaced legacy business class with this substandard economy+ product but yet they sell it just like they do standard business. They never sell the middle seat so why not just convert it to a 12 seat business cabin and be done with it. add 3 inches of leg room in the front for 36 inches and it's done. Maintain the same service standard they do with other TG flight numbers for consistency.

If they wanted to operate a pure LCC they shouldn't be coding the flight as TG and selling them like a normal TG flight. They should focus on Nokair as their LCC option

WannaFlyJ

Flew an old miserable A300 from BKK->HKT a few months back and made a comment to my friend that I thought all of these have either been written off or converted to cargo. That night on the news a A300 cargo conversion crashed in Africa... What a coincidence.

eponymous_coward

Looks like according to a.net, TG wants to sell their A300s, as well as their 734s, A346s and ATR-72s.

Seems pretty logical to me: sell the gas guzzlers or the oddballs in the fleet, go towards newer planes and an all-Y model for a lot of the short routes in SE Asia.

Creole Spirit

Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) is to bring forward its planned retirement of its last three remaining A300-600Rs, HS-TAT (cn 782), HS-TAX (cn 785) & HS-TAZ (cn 787). Collectively, the aircraft average 15.9 years of age the ch-aviation aircraft database shows.

The aircraft had been slated for withdrawal from October 25 but that has now changed with July 31 now set as the new date. The type's last flights, Airline Route claims, will be from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen on July 31, and to Chiang Rai on April 15.
(found in a recent Newsletter)

soy

sad to see it go. I would much prefer to fly the A300 on domestic routes such as HKT-BKK than single aisle planes.

eponymous_coward

As I am sure anyone who sells fuel to TG is also sad to see it go, since A300s take a lot more fuel and cost a lot more to fly...

The problem is people talk a good game about "hey, big planes are better", but the reality is very few people will pay a premium for ~400 mile routes (and there is added cost, 737s/A320s are considerably more efficient for short routes). If most people really valued big jets more than small ones, USA-based airlines would still be flying 747s to Hawaii, or on SFO-ORD.

seanthepilot

You are right about that Thai Smile is a joke. It is not a separate airline. They use all of TG's infrastructure and were put on routes that replaced profitable mainline routes. Bottom line, they are TG. It's a mirage, or typical Thai smoke and mirrors.

Nok Air poached all of PB Air's old routes. But they've made a success out of dying routes quite well.

seanthepilot

But, I too am going to miss the domestic runs on these aircraft. Lots of cheap W and V class seats on these widebodies.

flybit

I agree I will miss these planes.

Fan2502

Absolutely!

Some of the birds are in really good condition when you look at the wall pannels, the overhead bins and the lavs. The only issue are the seats.

I know it is just a fantasy. Wouldn't it be great if TG could reuse the old F seats from the 7442/14F. Those were a dream for domestic flight.

LH did something similar. They put old business class seats from their 747 into their A300 before they finally went to rest.

Oh well. Just me dreaming....

kyushuman

Randomly flew BKK-KKC today, just a 40 minute flight to Khon Kaen.
It was on a TG A300-600, and I asked the FA if he'd flown the 787 yet. "Yes, this crew just flew it yesterday to CNX and back," and I said that I hadn't been on an A300-600 for a long time. He said that, actually, the plane we were flying on would be "phased out" on July 31st (in 48 hours!), and it was 17 years old. He said it was his first aircraft that he'd been certified on, so he would miss it. I told him I was surprised, because the cabin looked to be in excellent shape actually!
It was a nice flight.

SASDC8

Not that it is to be trusted, but when looking for domestic flights in November the 300 still comes up on BKK-HKT and BKK-CNX runs on thai.com. I really hope that it`s true as I would love one last flight on the TG rocket ship

cmhua777

Still showing up on weekend flights to PNH in November as well.

dsquared37

Flights to PNH are exclusively TG A320s and have been since late March.

Edit: It appears TG mainline re-takes the BKK-PNH service on October 26.