Thai may cancel A380 order
A senior Thai Airways official said at an industry conference last week that he would not rule out the possibility of cancelling its order for six Airbus A380’s as delivery delays force the airline to alter its long-term business plan.
Wallop Bhukkanasut, Thai Airways Executive VP, Commercial Department, also said that the national carrier, 69% owned by the Thai Government and state-run agencies, was in unofficial talks with struggling Italian airline Alitalia on a potential partnership.
Wallop said, “The delay, we are looking at 22, 24 months now, so of course that’s going to affect our long-term plan”. “We actually wanted this fleet of 380s in operation by the end of November ’09, but then again now it doesn’t look like that, so we have to make some adjustments”.
Asked if Thai Airways would cancel its A380 order, he said, “I would not rule anything out.”
He said the airline would likely make a decision early next year after it names a new board of Directors at the end of December and the company will also see how the Thai government wants to deal with the situation.
If Thai Airways cancelled its A380 order, the move would be another blow to troubled Airbus, whose major customer FedEx last week cancelled its order for 10 A380-800F freighter aircraft and switched to US rival Boeing.
Wallop said Thai Airways and Airbus are in talks about compensation, but he declined to give details.
He added that a possible partnership with Alitalia would help it cash in on heavy traffic between Europe and Thailand, some of which he says is currently taken by Taiwan’s EVA Airways, which operates routes from Europe to Taipei through Thailand, saying, “We’d like Alitalia to revisit the situation… It should be our operation instead of the third-country operation on these routes.”
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli has repeatedly said Alitalia, which is facing mounting losses, needs commercial agreements with Asian airlines to secure its long-term future.
Wallop added that the two companies had not started official negotiations but are talking at an unofficial level.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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