Historically, Thai Airways’ fleet has been all over the place, and the carrier has lacked any sort of a cohesive strategy. At one point, it almost felt like someone in the carrier’s fleet planning department was getting paid a bonus for acquiring as many different kinds of planes as possible.
The company’s management is now trying to be a bit more disciplined, and streamline its fleet. The airline has dozens of Boeing 787s on order, which will soon become the carrier’s flagship long haul aircraft. On top of that, the airline plans to go all-in on Airbus A321neos for narrow body flights, and the first of those planes should be delivered soon. In this post, I want to cover what we know.
In this post:
Thai Airways has 32 Airbus A321neos on order
Thai Airways has a total of 32 Airbus A321neos on order, with the first plane expected to be delivered in November 2025. This is all happening on fairly short notice — in early 2024 the airline signed lease agreements for these planes, and we’re already soon going to see these planes enter service.
What’s interesting is that historically Thai Airways didn’t fly any narrow body aircraft in its mainline fleet. In 2024 we saw Thai Airways discontinue its Thai Smile subsidiary (which operated a fleet of around 20 Airbus A320s), and integrate those planes into the mainline fleet. As the airline has done this, it has also upgraded its passenger experience, adding real business class seats and Wi-Fi.
But the A321neos are supposed to serve a different purpose. Given the very high standard of passenger experience in Asia, the A321neos are intended to be planes that can actually operate in competitive markets, even those that might be a little longer.
AeroRoutes reports on how Thai Airways has scheduled its first A321neo routes for early 2026, as the airline plans to fly these planes from Bangkok (BKK) to Delhi (DEL), Hong Kong (HKG), Phuket (HKT), and more. Eventually, a good portion of Thai Airways’ services will be flown by these aircraft.
Thai Airways A321neos will have 175 seats
Thai Airways Airbus A321neos will be equipped with 175 seats, including 16 business class seats and 159 economy class seats.
In business class, the airline will offer Thompson Aero’s Vantage product, featuring staggered seats, meaning the cabin will alternate between a 2-2 and 1-1 configuration, with a total of five rows. You’ll find this product on several airlines operating A321-family aircraft, like Aer Lingus.
As you’d expect, economy will be in a 3-3 configuration, with seat back entertainment and charging ports at all seats. There will also be Wi-Fi throughout the aircraft, available for purchase.
We should learn even more details in the coming weeks, as the first of these planes is actually delivered.
Bottom line
Thai Airways has 32 Airbus A321neos on order, and the airline plans to soon take delivery of its first of these. In recent times, this will be Thai Airways’ first narrow body aircraft specifically intended for the airline, as the only other narrow bodies are ones that were inherited through the discontinuation of Thai Smile.
While these aren’t the most cutting edge narrow body jets we’ve seen, they’re certainly an upgrade over what you’ll otherwise largely find with the Thai Airways fleet. I also appreciate how many of these are on order, as the airline will finally offer some level of consistency.
What do you make of Thai Airways’ A321neo plans?
TG would introduce pajamas in J for Europe flights later this year.
New J retrofit seats on 777 should be next year.
Told ya
Speaking of A321neos, QR A321neos are entering service next month and it's in an all-economy layout. Caught me off-guard.
This is good for Thai in becoming profitable again with a leaner, more efficient operation. I remember in early 2010s, they were using 747s, 777s, and A330s between BKK & HKT every 2 hours. IF they want to, the A321Neos can be used for secondary cities in India, China, Korea and Japan - that's a lot of cities!
Ben, speaking of narrow-bodies with lay-flat seats, Gary has an article about AA starting XLR transcon service in December.
That leaves CX as the only major carrier in the region without lie-flat beds on a narrowbody. (I excluded VN, GA and MH as they don't have an extensive network compared to CX) With the separate order they placed for themselves and not for their defunct subsidiary Dragon, I hope they're quietly working on a new business class seat as the current seat is just not competitive with practically everyone else around them who already has lie-flat beds.
@Ben: It’s LONG overdue now. Please review the SQ 737 MAX soon, as that’s one major missing aircraft from your log. If possible, AI’s ex-Vistara A321neo as well.
I don’t think BR has lie-flats on A321s yet, and neither does JL have A321s so far, though those should arrive in due course. I’m not sure if not having lie-flats on A321neos (or, in SQ and MH’s case, 737s) is a complete deal-breaker for CX —...
@Ben: It’s LONG overdue now. Please review the SQ 737 MAX soon, as that’s one major missing aircraft from your log. If possible, AI’s ex-Vistara A321neo as well.
I don’t think BR has lie-flats on A321s yet, and neither does JL have A321s so far, though those should arrive in due course. I’m not sure if not having lie-flats on A321neos (or, in SQ and MH’s case, 737s) is a complete deal-breaker for CX — at least on daytime flights. Will people book away from CX and towards BR NH KE JX simply because of not having lie-flats? The jury is out on that one.
I also flew that plane from Singapore to Siem Reap last year in business class. This time we took the non-throne seats. They were slightly better but not a whole lot. Once again the inflight experience was flawless.
While I missed BR, I anticipate (and even expect) them to have lie-flat seats.
In JLs case, they plan to use them on domestic routes as indicated in their PR, so lie-flat seats would be moot as their business class on their domestic A350s are all recliners.
I and my wife flew a SQ 737 Max from Singapore to Cairns in business class. We both took the throne seats. The seats were narrow and uncomfortable. The service, nevertheless, was the usual spotless experience.
@Mike O.
Cathay's A321neos fly on short haul flights which are mostly during daytime and maximum 5 hours long. They are used on less premium routes with the exeption of a few premium heavy routes like Singapore where Cathay has multiple daily flights on premium heavy wide body aircraft. I don't think people will book away from Cathay and towards BR NH KE JX simply because of not having lie-flat seats.
@Proximanova
I...
@Mike O.
Cathay's A321neos fly on short haul flights which are mostly during daytime and maximum 5 hours long. They are used on less premium routes with the exeption of a few premium heavy routes like Singapore where Cathay has multiple daily flights on premium heavy wide body aircraft. I don't think people will book away from Cathay and towards BR NH KE JX simply because of not having lie-flat seats.
@Proximanova
I agree with you. I don't think people will book away from Cathay and towards BR NH KE JX simply because of not having lie-flat seats. Cathay is one of the best airlines in the region and during the daytime short haul flight lie-flat seats don't matter much.
Classic Star Alliance dominance
Whatever. I’m flying DELTA from BKK-HKT (via ICN, MSP and ICN again!).
Ben - "AeroRoutes reports on how Thai Airways has scheduled its first A321neo routes for early 2026, as the airline plans to fly these planes from Bangkok (BKK) to Delhi (DEL), Hong Kong (HKT), Phuket (HKT), and more."
You may wanna say Hong Kong (HKG).
@ Deo -- Fixed, thanks!