The story
Beginnings
Thai Airways International was founded in 1960 as a joint venture between Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), which held a 30 percent share of the new company valued at two million Thai baht, and Thailand's domestic carrier, Thai Airways Company (Thai: เดินอากาศไทย). SAS provided operational, managerial, and marketing expertise, with training aimed at building a fully independent national airline in the shortest possible time. Thai nationals were gradually able to assume full managerial responsibility and the number of expatriate staff duly decreased, with expatriates accounting for less than one percent of staff based in Thailand in 1987.
The airline's first intercontinental services using Douglas DC-8s started in 1971 to Australia, and then to Europe the following year. A number of the larger Douglas DC-10 wide-body tri-jets was acquired in the late-1970s. Services to North America commenced in 1980.
On 1 April 1977, after 17 years of capital participation by SAS, the Thai government bought out the remaining 15 percent of SAS-owned shares and Thai became a state owned enterprise of the Thai government. As of 22 May 2020, the Thai Ministry of Finance is no longer the majority shareholder, having reduced its holding to 47.86 percent from 51.03 percent.
In 1979, the carrier received its first cargo aircraft which is a Douglas DC-8-62AF used for flying between Bangkok and Karachi, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Hong Kong as well as a flight from Copenhagen to Paris.
1980s and 1990s: merger with Thai Airways Company
On 6 December 1987, services to Auckland in New Zealand were inaugurated. On 1 April 1988, then-Prime Minister Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda, merged the international and domestic operations of the two companies to form the present company, Thai Airways International, to have a single national carrier. On 25 June 1991, the reconfigured company listed its shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand and offered them to the public. The Thai public offering of shares is the largest ever undertaken in the country.
In 1997, Thai Airways planned a privatization program, the first in Thai history.
On 14 May 1997, Thai Airways, along with Lufthansa, Air Canada, SAS, and United Airlines, founded the world's first and largest airline alliance, Star Alliance.
The genesis of Thai's later financial difficulties has been attributed to actions taken in the 1990s when Thai Airways began "buying every type of plane that was being manufactured." Different models meant that the airline had to train an army of technicians to keep differing airframes and engines from both General Electric and Rolls-Royce airworthy, significantly inflating maintenance costs.
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2000s: Airline brand renewal and financial difficulties
In the first decade of the 21st century, Thai Airways continued its route network expansion with new services to Chengdu, Busan, Chennai, Xiamen, Milan, Moscow, Islamabad, Hyderabad, Johannesburg, and Oslo.
Using the Airbus A340-500 fleet, which was acquired in 2005, Thai commenced non-stop flights between Bangkok and New York and Bangkok to Los Angeles, its first non-stop service to North America. The airline later converted an existing one-stop service (via Tokyo) to Los Angeles into a non-stop flight using the same aircraft type. Citing very high fuel costs, Thai discontinued the New York service in July 2008. The service to Los Angeles was again reverted to one-stop service via Seoul on 1 May 2012, leaving the airline without a non-stop service between Thailand and North America. The A340s used were phased out, replaced by the Boeing 777-200ER for the Bangkok–Seoul–Los-Angeles route.
The 2000s also saw Thai expand its Thai airport network beyond its Bangkok hub. The airline launched non-stop flights from Phuket to Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong.
During the late-2000s, Thai's growth was hampered by a combination of internal and external factors, including a spike in fuel prices, domestic political conflict in Thailand, and the global economic crisis of the late-2000s. In 2008, after achieving profitability for the previous 40 years, Thai recorded a loss for the first time in its history of around 21 billion baht (US$675 million). The airline blamed high fuel costs and Thailand's political turmoil. As of Q2 2009, after a series of restructuring initiatives, including a two-year deferral of its Airbus A380 deliveries, the carrier returned to a net profit of 2.5 billion baht.
Thai's need for reform became evident in the first decade of the 21st century, but reforms, when they came, were invariably cut short. Thai's problems were threefold: ineffective leadership at the top; inexperienced boards; and a coddled union. Piyasvasti Amranand took Thai's helm in October 2009 after serving as energy minister. At Thai, he is still regarded as a true reformer, imposing salary cuts for senior executives as part of his drive to reduce costs. He was voted out by the board in 2012 for what may have been political reasons. The board of directors was, after the 2014 Thai coup d'état, packed with military brass. Five civilian members were purged and replaced with five Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) generals, as was the board's chairman. The appointments ended Thai's policy of only appointing technocrats to the board. Three RTAF generals remain on the 2020 board; they have no experience running listed companies or restructuring loss-making airlines. Concomitantly, employees at Thai enjoyed an overprotected status. Salary increases based on length of employment led to senior captains earning more than the CEO.
2010s: Fleet renewal and route expansion
While celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2010, Thai, led by its president, Piyasvasti Amranand, drafted new plans for the airline's future, including aircraft fleet renewal and an upgrade of existing services. Thai placed orders for a number of aircraft, including the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, and it launched a refurbishment of its Boeing 747 and 777 cabins. Mindful of rising fuel costs, the airline phased-out its most inefficient aircraft, including its Airbus A340-500s. The airline took delivery of its first Airbus A380 aircraft in the second half of 2012, intending to eventually deploy the aircraft on its core European routes.
THAI resumed network expansion with the resumption of flights to Brussels, in addition to a new non-stop flight from Stockholm and Copenhagen to Phuket. At the same time, the Greek debt crisis caused Thai to suspend its services to Athens.
Thai expects to be the first carrier in Asia to fly commercial flights using biofuels. The carrier launched the initiative with experimental flights in December 2011 as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program, otherwise known as "Travel Green". Thai hopes to stimulate sustained biofuel production in Thailand by working with Thai government agencies and regional corporate partners, such as PTT Public Company Limited. The effort aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in regional air travel as well as position Thailand to be the "bio hub" of Asia.
In April 2015, after an audit of the Thai Department of Civil Aviation, Thailand was downgraded from Category 1 to Category 2 due to negative audit results from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). On 1 December 2015, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced their reassessment of the safety rating for Thailand, downgrading it from a Category 1 to Category 2 country. The FAA stated, "U.S. and Thai aviation officials have a long-standing cooperative relationship and both our countries work continuously to meet the challenge of ensuring aviation safety. A Category 2 International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) rating means that the country either lacks laws or regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards, or its civil aviation authority—a body equivalent to the FAA for aviation safety matters—is deficient in one or more areas, such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping, or inspection procedures. With a Category 2 rating, Thailand's air carriers can continue existing routes to the United States but they won't be allowed to establish new routes to the United States."
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) declined to blacklist any Thai carriers following a review of certain carriers in November 2015. Thai later received third country operator (TCO) certification from the EU, effective 15 December 2015, authorizing the carrier to continue flying to the EU for the foreseeable future.
In July 2015, Thai announced the planned cancellation of service to Los Angeles after 25 October 2015, marking the end of US service.
In June 2016, as a result of its restructuring plan, Thai announced it would commence thrice-weekly Tehran service. However, the service ended on 28 February 2018. The airline also considered a return to the US using Boeing 787-9 by 2017. However, Charamporn Jothikastira, president of Thai, turned down the possibility of returning to Los Angeles or New York City due to losses in the past. Instead, Thai considered other cities such as San Francisco and Seattle. During this time, Thai Smile planned new regional routes to Cebu, Medan, Surabaya, Chandigarh, Shantou and Tianjin.
In August 2016, Thai introduced a new route network management system. Following implementation, flight schedules were synchronized, allowing international passengers to transit via Bangkok Suvarnabhumi more conveniently. Thai planned to adjust thirteen route schedules, mainly in Japan, Australia, and India. Routes to Perth and Brisbane were announced.
In 2019, Thai was audited by the State Audit Office as a result of a 6.8 billion baht loss in the first half of the year.
2020s: Bankruptcies and rehabilitations
On 19 May 2020, the Thai Cabinet approved Thai Airways' filing for bankruptcy protection at the Central Bankruptcy Court, after the company had struggled with a debt of ฿240 billion and heavy consecutive losses since 2017, which were further worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic that caused Thai Airways to lose at least ฿18 billion. The Thai government later sold a 3.2% stake in the company, ending the company's status as a state-owned enterprise.
On 14 September 2020, the Central Bankruptcy Court in Bangkok approved THAI’s petition to enter a court-supervised business rehabilitation, marking the largest corporate restructuring in Thai history.
In February 2023, it has been announced that subsidiary Thai Smile will be dissolved as a separate entity and merged into Thai Airways by 2024 in an effort to reduce losses. The last flight of Thai Smile occurred on December 31, 2023.
In November 2024, regulators announced that Thailand is expected to regain its Category 1 (CAT 1) safety rating in early 2025, which would allow Thai Airways and other carriers to operate flights between Thailand and the United States. On 21 November 2024, it was reported that Thai Airways will resume its flight to Brussels, Belgium beginning 1 December 2024 after a 4-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 2 May 2025, Mr. Piyasawat Amaranan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Business Rehabilitation Plan for Thai Airways Public Company Limited, revealed that Thai Airways is conducting a feasibility study to resume flights to the United States via Osaka. However, according to the airline's 10-year plan, there will be no flights to the United States due to a shortage of aircraft, as Thai Airways is prioritising increasing flight frequency on high-potential routes such as Paris and resuming services to Vienna and Amsterdam.
After a four-year rehabilitation process, on 16 June 2025, the Central Bankruptcy Court granted permission for Thai Airways to exit its rehabilitation program, as the airline had achieved the four conditions required by the plan: formation of a new board, EBITDA of ฿40,000 million (double the benchmark set), disciplined repayments without default, and a registered capital increase with debt-to-equity conversion. The airline later resumed trading on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on 4 August 2025, with an opening price of ฿10.5 per share, representing a 134.4% increase from the capital increase offering price of ฿4.48 per share, and a market capitalization of nearly ฿300,000 million. During an interview with the Bangkok Post on 24 August 2025, Chai Eamsiri, Chief Executive Officer of Thai Airways, revealed that the airline plans to double the frequencies of its flights to Guangzhou and Beijing, increasing from seven to fourteen per week for each destination. Thai Airways will also resume services to Xiamen, Chongqing, and Changsha, each with seven weekly flights, and will introduce new routes to Wuhan and Shenzhen. In addition, the airline is considering launching a new route to Gaya, along with several new domestic routes, in line with the delivery of new aircraft. To bridge the capacity gap before these aircraft arrive, Thai Airways plans to lease eight to ten wide-body aircraft for a period of six years, with a final decision expected in September 2025. The airline will also commence a cabin refurbishment program across its Airbus A320, Airbus A350-900, and Boeing 777-300ER fleets.
From Wikipedia’s article on Thai Airways International, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3