brunos

Indeed.
On the other hand, the State can also be regarded as a creditor with the right to have its say on investment plans. And TG has been slow in cutting costs.
I find Pailin's statement full of common sense. It is always strange to see how State enterprises often develop a life of its own, engaging in grandiose plans, sometimes for the benefit of harmony, its employees, or VIPs, without sticking to a painful plan to ensure profitability or even survival ("the government will always bail us out"). Buying smaller planes is the necessity of the day to compete.

LPQ

It would certainly be good practice for an organisation to have a dialogue with its creditors and also its investors. However, management should make the decisions being called to account by the Board to ensure it acts in accordance with the governance arrangements. Greater weighting, though, should be given to a dialogue with its customers. Have we, as customers, noticed such a dialogue?

State enterprises and grandiose plans have a tendency to co-exist. I think the spotlight should be turned onto the governance arrangements which ideally should have been robust enough to see off any aggrandisement and flights of egotistical fancy. If the high level reporting of the Office of the Internal Audit is being effective, then any deficiencies in these arrangements should have been exposed by now and reported to the Board members.

Tokyoite

As per this (link) website, the news from 2017 December.
This spells the end of the 747 from SYD......just waiting for the bomb to drop.

In 2018, Thai Airways will receive the last five aircraft from orders it placed several years ago. The current fleet plan for 2018 includes five A350-900 deliveries, all in the first half, as well as the retirement of two 777-200s and two 737-400s. In 2017 the airline also took delivery of five A350s, along with two 787-9s, and at the same time retired two A330-300s.
And then, from the same link,
Thai Airways to offer all lie-flat premium product in Australia market from 2018.
In Australia, Thai plans to offer lie-flat business class seats on all flights by mid-2018. The airline is now in the process of upgrading Melbourne, and plans to upgrade Sydney in 1H2018. Mr Krittaphon said the company was planning to upgrade Sydney from 11 weekly 747-400 flights to twice daily A350 flights in 1H2018, as additional A350s are delivered. The new twice daily service will improve connectivity, while increasing total capacity by a modest 7%.

BinSabai

bad (for F) and good news (for J and Y) for our australian board members
so will the 747 be totally retired or still be used on the MUC route and some others where they don't sell F...

flyerby

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Plenty of folk have been 'TG'd' before unfortunately. The cabins aren't often full, and until they load the new aircraft (no certainty as to when that will happen), they'll continue to sell F. Those affected will likely get a refund or have to make alternative arrangements.

Mauibaby2008

Taoyuan

I was hoping to get an F ticket for Jan or Feb 19. Looks like no way now.

suedave88

We have F Syd Bkk in June if thay are canned we will never fly Thai again

flyerby

tpsmith82

Boy do I hear you. Seems ridiculous that they would sell all these flights with 1st class tickets and then make a switch. But, i guess they're know for that kind of junk. I wonder if that happened if we would loose 1st class lounge access as well in BKK?

Ohh man. I've been watching this with white knuckles! I booked an award ticket, TG471, from BKK to SYD back in July for a flight on April 7th. Originally the sea map showed the old 10 seat style 747 and that seemed to correspond with flight reports of that style as well. I was actually happy with that layout as I'll be traveling with my wife and we have seats 1A/1K. Then recently I noticed the seat plan changed to the 9 seat layout and while a bit bummed on the "enclosed" suited, I am excited to experience the new product. Now I've got to fear for loosing the 1st class experience all together! Man I hope not. All I can hope is that like with most things Thai, there will be delays and changes of plans, hopefully in our favor.

Does anyone know of a resource where you can determine when the delivery of the A350 will take place. Could you check an Airbus website to determine a delivery date?

tpsmith82

Found some cool links to track some progress.

This shows TG's A350 yet to be delivered
https://www.planespotters.net/produc...tStatus=future

These are threads on the production of each aircraft at the Airbus A350 Toulouse site.

HS-THL
A350-900 - MSN185 (TG10) | a380.boards.net

HS-THM
A350-900 - MSN189 (TG11) | a380.boards.net

HS-THN
A350-900 - MSN201 (TG12) | a380.boards.net

Now, I have absolutly no idea how long certification, testing or anything like that takes. But I thought it was cool to track the progress of the A350's and when they might ruin my 1st class flight!!! ; - )

Tokyoite

As of now, April should be safe. It is the Thai Songkran season, and high tourist season, so it would be silly to downguage then. June onwards might be bleak. By December, we might see some 747 again to accommodate the peak season. As it is, the 747 is "doomed" by its lack of lie-flat business class seats, and of course Thai isn't willing to spend money retrofitting these old birds. They might be relegated to domestic (CNX/HKT) and regional (HND/ICN/PEK/DEL?) heavy routes. Suprising though that HKG lost the 747. Too much competition from the myriad of 5th freedom flights between BKK and HKG offering competitively priced lie-flat seats (EK/KQ/RJ) as well as CX.

flyerby

kittiyut

Wonder what's more painful:

- Being downgraded from F to J on SYD-BKK due to aircraft change

Or

- Having to cancel two F seats SYD-BKK (booked using UA miles for 40K each) due to personal schedule change. (For a full refund, miles & tax - no redeposit fee)