Thai Airways places large order for Dreamliners

Reuters has reported that Thai Airways is the airline behind a large Boeing B787-order which was placed in December and booked as "Undisclosed". CH-Aviation is also reporting about the deal and has gotten confirmation from the airline.

In total, Thai Airways ordered 45 Boeing B787-9s which are planned to be all delivered by 2033. The deal is also having an, so far, unspecified number of options.

In September 2023, Scramble reported that the airline was looking into placing a large order for widebody aircraft in order to meet the growing customer demand. The reports back then were stating Thai was planning to order up to 95 aircraft, so it will be interesting to see how many options have been included.

According to the reports, Thai has selected the Dreamliner over the Airbus A350 due to the availability of a second engine manufacturer. Thai has a dispute with Rolls-Royce about pricing of new engines and maintenance, which is the only engine provider for the A350, and has decided that the B787 will be equipped with General Electric-engines.

Thai will also use its new B787s as replacement for older widebodies in the fleet, which today is made-up of twenty A320s, three A330-300s, seventeen A350-900s, five B777-200s, seventeen B777-300ERs, six B787-8s, and two B787-9s.

Photo by Thai Airways.