THAI fancies flying suites

Thai Airways International has decided to install suites in its first class cabin on its A380 fleet, due for delivery in 2012, but they will be available in other aircraft as early as this June.

Passengers should be able to book the first-class private suites this June when three Boeing B777-300ERs, dry-leased from Jet Airways, arrive and are reconfigured with the new cabin layout.

The airline plans to lease six aircraft for three to five years to ease an aircraft shortage due to the delivery delays on A330-300s and unscheduled maintenance of aging aircraft.
Another three B777s are likely to be leased from Air India also featuring a first class cabin and private suites. These aircraft are new and will be delivered directly from the manufacturer. If THAI and Air India agree on the lease term, the second batch will be in the fleet by this October.

THAI executive vice president commercial, Pruet Boobphakam, said the leased the B777s will be deployed mainly on European trunk routes.

?We are still finalising details, but it is likely we will use the B777s on services to London or Paris and possibly Tokyo.?

London, Paris and Frankfurt have already been designated for A380 services by 2012, based on high passenger traffic and the lack of options to increase frequency on these routes.

THAI?s A380s will have four classes ? first class, business class, premium economy class and economy class, probably configured 10, 60, 50 and 380 seats in each class respectively.

Sourced = The TTR Weekly