Thai Airways Part 1: Europe capacity growth resumes as 747-400 retirements are postponed

Thai Airways is increasing focus on transit traffic, including in the highly competitive Australia-Europe market, as part of the latest phase of its transformation plan. The flag carrier is maintaining capacity to Australia while most Southeast Asian competitors have cut back and has reversed some capacity cuts to Europe that were implemented in an earlier phase of its restructuring.

Thai remains in restructuring mode but by some measures is growing again. Capacity is increasing slightly as aircraft utilisation rates improve and as the planned retirement of eight 747-400s has been postponed.

Passenger traffic is growing at an even faster rate as load factors recover after a dismal 2014. Thai expects further load factor gains as well as yield improvements driven by a new initiative to improve network connectivity and boost sales in city pairs where its market share has languished.