Thai Airways plans to buy or lease 34 planes

BANGKOK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The board of Thai Airways International THAI.BK approved plans on Wednesday to lease or buy 34 Boeing (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Airbus (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) passenger planes as part of a 10-year plan to replace the airline's ageing fleet.

Details were still be worked out, but the national carrier planned to buy or lease 20 Airbus A321-200 aircraft and lease 14 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, president Apinan Sumanaseni told reporters.

The board approved a deposit of $3 million for the Airbus order, which could cost up to $1 billion if the airline decided to buy them, he said.

"We haven't decided whether to buy or lease the A321s. That depends on the new government," he said of the coalition administration still being negotiated after December's general election.

"For the 787s, we have to work on the details and propose it to the board again," he said, adding he expected delivery of the leased aircraft to begin in 2012.

Over the next 10 years, the airline wants to procure 65 aircraft worth 400 billion baht ($12 billion) to upgrade its 91-plane fleet. It plans to decommission 47 aircraft more than 20 years old.

Thai Airways expected a "cabin factor" -- the percentage of seats sold -- of 82 percent in December, and an average 80 percent in the January-March period, but that would drop to 76-77 percent in the April-May low season, Apinan said.

Higher fuel costs would drag its revenues down in the financial 2007/2008 year, although the airline had raised fuel surcharges to offset the higher costs, Apinan said.

"We plan to raise the fuel surcharge by April," he added.

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