Thai put plan to but UA 744s on the back burner

National carrier Thai Airways International said Wednesday it will put a plan to buy second-hand aircraft on hold and try to speed up the delivery of new planes on order instead.
Company president Kanok Abhiradee said the airline would look at the plan to buy second-hand planes again once the bird flu outbreaks in Thailand were cleared. That could still be several months.
“The committee wants to hold the plan for now,” he told reporters.
Last month, Thai Airways said it was looking for second-hand planes after an offer to buy seven from bankrupt United Airlines failed. It said United had rejected its offer because the offer price was too low.
Thai Airways, 67.8 percent owned by the government, offered United Airlines USD$330 million for seven Boeing planes for delivery in 2004 and 2005.
The search for second-hand planes is part of Thai Airways’ 70 billion baht (USD$1.78 billion) plan to buy 17 aircraft over the next five years to boost its fleet.
It received two new Boeing planes late last year and now has 83 aircraft and rival planemaker Airbus said in August Thai Airways had ordered eight planes. The remaining seven were to come from United Airlines.
Kanok said the airline would ask Airbus to deliver half the ordered planes next year, six months earlier than scheduled.
The airline expected revenues to rise eight percent to 150 billion baht (USD$3.8 billion) in the current financial year as it carries more passengers, he said.
Passenger numbers rose sharply, especially at the beginning of the year, Kanok said.
The airline’s cabin factor — a measure of how fully airline passenger capacity is used — hit 79 percent in January, he said.
The carrier’s financial year runs from October 1 to September 30. It had revenues of 139 billion baht (USD$3.53 billion) and a record net profit of 12.45 billion baht (USD$315.8 million) in the previous financial year.
Kanok did not give a net profit forecast, but said sales in the second quarter to March would be flat as some passengers had postponed trips due to bird flu outbreaks in Thailand. He did not say how many people had done so.
Thai Airways, Asia’s sixth-largest airline by market capitalization, made a net profit of 4.35 billion baht (USD$110.3 million) in the first quarter to December 2003, up from 3.5 billion (USD$88.8 million) a year earlier.