The flag carrier of Thailand, Thai Airways, will eventually take delivery of three brand new Boeing 777-300ERs. In fact, some sources note that these could be in the carrier's possession within weeks as the jet was spotted at Boeing's production facility in Everett on December 8th. It looks like the aircraft still needs to get its full livery painted on, but the plane will arrive at the airline at a time when it's needed the least. Here's what we know so far.
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The first of three 777-300ERs
The news comes via The Points Guy who, in turn, shared a Twitter post showing the first of three jets being painted in Everett, Washington. As you can see below, the aircraft will reportedly have registration HS-TTA and is Boeing line number 1683.
Line numbers for Boeing are somewhat similar to how Airbus uses its MSNs. The line number is unique within the family of aircraft. Unlike Airbus, Boeing resets the line number when the family of aircraft gets a significant update and is classified as another series. Thus, there can be a Boeing 737 from the Classic series and a 737 from the Next Generation (NG) series with the same line number.
According to BOE Family Flights, the aircraft was first spotted in primer on December 7th, just a day before the above Twitter post. The aircraft's taxi and RTO (rejected take-off) checks haven't been listed but since these are usually conducted after livery painting, it likely still needs to happen. Following that will be several test flights - at least two if not more.
With the aircraft's registration listed as HS-TTA, our guess is that the two 777s after it will be HS-TTB and HS-TTC. This is a common pattern with multiple aircraft from the same other and our guess seems to check out as per a post on Airliners.net.
Why brand new Boeing 777s now?
As you may already know, aircraft ordered from the manufacturer by airlines (or aircraft leasing firms) are done far in advance, with the most popular aircraft programs having multiple years of backlogs. These particular aircraft were ordered via BOC Aviation back in 2018.
Unfortunately, these new planes would come at an awful time for Thai Airways, as the carrier has been experiencing huge financial difficulties, further exacerbated by the global health crisis. However, as The Points Guy notes, even when the order was placed, Thai Airways was already in financial trouble. Leaving most to wonder why in the world it happened in the first place.
These three new aircraft will join the 20 Boeing 777s that Thai Airways already has in its fleet. According to Planespotters.net, the carrier has three that are active while the other 17 remain parked. In fact, 12 of these 777s were put up for sale. The carrier has been putting a great deal of effort into raising funds to stay afloat financially. It was reported to have put up for sale some of its assets (from cutlery to tires) while also trying to sell some of its 747s and 777s.
Have you flown on Thai Airways' 777 in the past? Share your experience with us in the comments.