At the tip of January, we reported that the primary of two Airbus A350s acquired by Thai Airways had been spotted. With several months having now passed, this primary aircraft has been delivered to the airline, making its way from Tarbes to Bangkok on May eleventh. With this latest delivery, Thai Airways has 13 A350-900s in its fleet.
Delivery flight details
On May eleventh, the most recent Thai Airways aircraft registered HS-THO with manufacturer’s serial number (MSN) 351 departed Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees Airport (LDE) for Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK). Based on FlightRadar24.com data, the jet departed LDE at 15:54 local time as flight TG8934. Flying overnight, the aircraft arrived at BKK at 07:51 local time on May twelfth. The entire flight duration of this ferry service was 10 hours and 57 minutes.
Photo: FlightRadar24.com
Prior to the aircraft’s delivery, it had presumably been undergoing pre-delivery work at Tarbes since February fifteenth. Before this, the Airbus A350 had spent about two and a half weeks at Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport.
Approaching 4 years of age
As noted in our previous coverage of this aircraft, the airframe just isn’t exactly brand recent. Indeed, the jet’s first test flight took place in August 2019, so it’s going to soon be 4 years old.
Data from Aviation Flights indicates that this airframe was originally built to fly with Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines. The aircraft is listed as being ‘delivered on contract’ to the airline on December thirtieth, 2019. Nonetheless, the pandemic and/or pre-existing financial difficulties played a job in Hainan Airlines’ inability to operate the aircraft – the jet was flown directly from Toulouse to Tarbes in January 2020. For the rest of 2020, the whole thing of 2021, and most of 2022, it seems that the aircraft was stored at Tarbes before being moved between Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Tarbes between late November 2022 and May 2023.