SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Thai Airways International could exercise an existing option to buy more planes from U.S. planemaker Boeing as part of Thailand’s tariff negotiations with the United States, CEO Chai Eamsiri told a Reuters NEXT Asia summit on Wednesday.
The flag carrier in February last year said it had ordered 45 Boeing 787-9 wide-body jets with options for a further 35.
Thailand has submitted a new trade proposal to the United States in a bid to avoid steep tariff hikes on its own products.
Thai Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said on Sunday the country could purchase more Boeing aircraft as part of its trade talks with Washington, in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Eamsiri confirmed the finance minister was referring to Thai Airways’ option to buy 35 more 787s.
In June, Thai Airways exited its debt restructuring programme and said it expects to resume trading its shares on the stock market by early August.
Thailand’s national airline began a bankruptcy-protected restructuring of debt worth 400 billion baht ($11.17 billion) in 2021, reducing its workforce by half and trimming its fleet.
Eamsiri said the airline is operating with around 75% of the seat capacity it had before the pandemic, but its revenue has surpassed pre-COVID levels.
“Our efficiency is better than in the past,” he told the panel.
Eamsiri said the airline has no plans to resume direct flights to the United States, despite the U.S. upgrading Thailand’s air safety rating this year to permit direct flights.
Eamsiri said the airline’s current fleet could not operate such long-distance flights efficiently, and also noted that the U.S. market was a “big risk” in the current context of tariff negotiations.
Thai Airways stopped flying to the United States in 2015, the same year as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration downgraded Thailand’s air safety rating to “Category 2”, preventing Thai airlines from launching or expanding services to the United States.
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(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Tony Munroe; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
