Without A Buyer, Thai Air's A340 Fleet Will Stay Grounded
- Airline says urgent action needed to spur ticket demand
- Carrier has hedged 40% of 2016 fuel needs at `not bad' price
Thai Airways aircraft stand at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international aiport.
Photographer: Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Thai Airways International Pcl will continue to ground 10 Airbus A340s it hasn’t been able to sell because flying the four-engine planes isn’t worth it, even after fuel prices plunged more than 40 percent in the past year.
“The fuel consumption is so uneconomical,” President Charamporn Jotikasthira said in an interview Thursday in Bangkok. “All new planes now have two engines that can fly as long as the four engines, with much better fuel efficiency.”