Thai Airlines: 777s for short haul

[Dakota Queen]

Hey

When I was in Thailand last year I took a flight to Phuket from Bangkok - I was hoping for something 'different' - like a twin turbo prop - you know, low altitude, get too see some of the countryside on the way down etc. I couldnt believe they put us on a 777 for this 1 hour flight! Is this normal? It screams to me of being very inefficient. Now I dont know maybe this is the done thing in some places - I guess if they are doing it it must be sensible. On the return flight it was a 777 again.

I'd be interested to hear.....

Cheers:}

[Sidekick]

I managed to get on a flight from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam a few years back (Gulf Air). Flight time was about ten minutes from memory. Gulf were nice enough to provide a 767.

I'm guessing Thai were dropping the long haul holiday-makers off at the beach before returning the aircraft back to base?

[411A]

Sometimes, airlines use larger long-range aircraft on shorter sectors to keep all pilots current...ie: number of landings in a specified period.

[akerosid]

Thai has seven 777-200s, which (at the time of delivery, may have been changed since) were configured for 2-4-2 in Business and 10 abreast in Y class; total, 358. These aircraft are the baseline models, not ERs and were intended for use on high density regional flights, such as Osaka, Hong Kong, Taipei, Japan, Seoul etc.

The airline also operates A330-300s in a "normal" layout, i.e. six abreast Business, 2-4-2 Economy, which operate much the same routes and slightly wider afield too (i.e. PER, middle east).

The two aircraft types "cut across" each other, particularly if TG were to/has (this has been discussed by them, but not sure if they have acted on it) reconfigured. Trouble is, if they do bring the 777 to a standard density layout, it puts the aircraft's capacity in the A330 class, for the same routes. This is unfortunately another example of TG's aircraft selection not being clearly thought out.

[dinky]

2 years ago my wife and I travelled the same route on a nearly empty Jumbo.

[Cyrano]

As I recall, some of the HKT-BKK sectors are part of multi-leg routings such as HKT-BKK-HKG or HKT-BKK-TPE (sorry, not certain about final stop) and hence are on the larger aircraft.

[topunicyclist]

Sidekick, I think Gulf Air operate Zan and Dar as a combined flight from the Gulf to make the route more viable. When flying from Muscat to Dar in 1994, we made a stop in Zanzibar before Dar.

I'm surprised to hear that Gulf Air have (8th freedom?) traffic rights between Zan and Dar though as I would have thought the Tanzanian Gvt would have wanted to protect home carriers (Air TZ and Precision Air).

[Dakota Queen]

Interesting replies indeed - still though would an airline be silly enough to lift an empty jet into the air to keep pilots current? Part of a long route - Hong Kong - BKK - HKT - yes possible I suppose.

My main gripe is that I imagine that when I go to exotic places I want to fly on something exotic. Its always just jets, jets and more jets!! No offence to them but even when I was in Peru and Bolivia and did a few cross border flights it was 737s, the only half interesting plane was a clapped out LAB 727! Gimme a bumpy ride in a fokker over the andes anyday!


Good Luck..
:}