Thai Airways Needs New Aircraft

Thai Airways’ pursuit of acquiring new aircraft continues to throw curveballs, and the airline is becoming more desperate by the day.

The Nation Thailand reports that the airline will seek to obtain board approval for the acquisition of up to 10 widebody aircraft urgently on a lease.

The move from the Thailand flag-carrier follows persistent struggles in acquiring new aircraft, alongside other lease arrangements that have fallen through, leaving the company without its desired capacity.

A move to acquire more aircraft follows the continued push to replace previously retired ones. The new jets are critical to allowing the airline to move ahead with its growth objectives, which include renewing the fleet.

Nine retired aircraft mean that eight to ten new planes must come in, as confirmed by the Chief Executive Officer of Thai Airways. Unfortunately, the process of acquiring these planes, however, has not been smooth sailing.

Deals for 777s and 787s, which were to be leased, fell through, leaving Thai Airways scrambling, a position it still finds itself in now as it struggles to find a solution to its capacity shortages.

As more airlines struggle to combat new delivery delays, they’re also turning to the leasing market, where leading aircraft lessors are tasked with what is becoming an increasingly harder job of answering all these calls.

While aircraft lessors will have solid backlogs of new commercial aircraft and deliveries planned over an extended period, alongside their existing assets, similar to airlines, they’re also at the mercy of aircraft manufacturers and their struggles.

Thai Airways’ New Aircraft Struggles

For Thai Airways, the persistent challenges with new aircraft from plane makers Airbus and Boeing have put added pressure on the company as a business.

The flag-carrier said even in August that it was scrambling to secure planes to serve its widebody operation in a bid to mitigate some of the damage being felt from the lack of new planes being delivered from leading global planemakers of Airbus and Boeing.

Thai Airways’ messaging has remained clear throughout. Without access to next-generation aircraft across either its narrow- or widebody sectors, it’ll be unable to proceed with growth as intended for at least the next two years.

The airline is patiently awaiting 2027, when deliveries of larger aircraft are expected to resume at the required rate, as planemakers continue to navigate supply chain complexities. Although these complexities are improving, they have not yet improved at a rate that ensures all is well with their customers.

2026, however, is earmarked as an important year of transition for regional flying from Bangkok with the arrival of more narrowbody aircraft from Airbus.

Much of the stress for the carrier also stemmed from reporting, which indicated widebody delays. The airline’s CEO, Chyai Eamsiri, spoke with Business Times and said that 787s, part of a fresh batch of deliveries, have seen their delivery timeline blown out by a further six months to the end of 2027.

Unfortunately, this remains an industry-wide problem; Thai Airways is hardly the only airline to be affected by such challenges in acquiring new planes, which in turn throws curveballs into previously outlined renewal and growth plans.

Because Thai Airways is also emerging from restructuring, during its darkest periods, it was forced to axe several fleet types, which, while bringing better efficiency, meant a reduction in capacity across the airline as it was unable to source replacements.

Thai Airways will continue to scramble for planes, for the moment on a lease, as it awaits the delivery of new jets from Airbus and Boeing, which continue to see improvements in their output and supply chain rates.