Sri Rittana, the 507- seater Airbus A380 jetliner operated by Thai Airways, made its maiden flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong on Saturday.
Transport Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan presided over the inaugural commercial flight TG 600 Bangkok-Hong Kong.
This is the first of a fleet of six new Airbus A380-800 jetliners for the flag carrier. The Thai airbus has a total of 507 seats in three classes: 12 seats in Royal First Class; 60 seats in Royal Silk Class (Business Class); and 435 seats in Economy.
The Thai Airways Bangkok-Singapore A380 flight also began service on Saturday The second Airbus A380-800 aircraft is expected to arrive by November and will be used for the Bangkok-Frankfurt and Bangkok-Hong Kong commercial routes come mid December, MCOT reported.
The third aircraft will arrive on January 2013 and will expand THAI’s service to Bangkok-Narita Japan; the fourth will service the Bangkok-Paris route come February 2013. Meanwhile, the last two airbus airliners, hailed as the largest and most eco-efficient aircraft in the world, will be delivered late 2013.
Thai Airways Executive Vice President for Strategy and Business Development Chokchai Panyayong, said that seats for Airbus A380 flights to Hong Kong in October were around 75-80 percent booked. At the same time, the scheduled flights to Singapore had about a 60 to 65 percent reservation rate.
