Just like all airline airlines around the world, serious decisions need to be made on which routes the airlines continues to operate and don’t wish to. In these types of events, it’s hectic at the airline and stress levels are at an all-time high, and there’s not much that can be done to prevent it.
Thai Airways has been a little quiet in terms of announcing changes, but luckily there’s websites and places to find information pretty quickly. Airlineroute reports that the Bangkok based carrier has recently made some pretty significant changes to their schedules and it even means the removal of a particular aircraft on one of the Australian routes.
Thai Airways To Remove 747 From Sydney + Other Australia Route Cuts
Thai Airways 777-300ER
-
The removal of the 747 service from Sydney
This one is unfortunate, but all good things must come to an end. Thai will sadly remove the 747 from operating Sydney services and will instead replace it with the 777-300ER aircraft as well as reducing the services from 7 weekly down to 5 weekly. Only a few weeks ago I got to fly on the aircraft and first and I’m glad I was able to get the chance to do so before it was too late. The review on that flight will be available in the coming days.
-
Brisbane will be receiving one less frequency
Brisbane will also be saying goodbye to one weekly flight with the number of services going from 4 down to 3 weekly. The flights will continue to be operated by the 777-200ER aircraft.
-
Melbourne will lose two of their weekly services
Melbourne currently has 14 weekly services, but from the 29th of March, there will be 12. This route, in particular, is operated by the latest passenger offerings from Thai as the A350-900 operates the route. I had previously flown the route when it was operated by a 772 and can say the A350 is a massive upgrade.
-
Perth will lose over half of their flights
Perth will be the hardest city hit with capacity reductions with the number of services decreasing from seven down to three from the 29th of March. The route will continue to be operated by an A330-300 aircraft.
These cuts don’t come as much surprise as virtually every other airline is doing the same thing. It’s always sad to see routes being taken away, but it’s also especially sad to see an aircraft being removed from a service altogether. Sydney and Tokyo are the only routes for the 747, so I imagine the airline may even look at retiring them due to high operating costs.