Originally Posted by
bindog
These A340s are up for sale, but not much interest in them as you say.
Aircraft for sale
One of them was only built in 2008 according to that 'for sale' list. Hard to believe any airline was still buying new A340s as recently as seven or eight years ago eh?
One was almost sold, but I heard somewhere that the A340s are on the books as assets worth 'x' baht, and selling them for less than that would mean "losing" money. Better to let them corrode away by the seaside, whilst they depreciate off the books. - Accountant logic.
Thai Airways Int'l puts its four A340-500s up for sale - ch-aviation.com
For once I don't think it was completely Thai's fault or that of whoever was PM at the time. I recall the EU threatening Thailand with tariffs on Thai shrimp about the same time the plane purchases were being discussed, and that threat magically disappeared after they bought these crappy airplanes. I certainly don't put the EU above such conduct.
^ Yes that lie about the "C" checks was discovered by a consultant for the potential purchaser when they tried to sell one of them.
^^ Also for the last government to have sold these planes for less than the "book value" was a political trap they cannot be blamed for avoiding. When making a political stink truth means little and the book value was much higher than their real value. Can you imagine the stink the opposition would have made if this sale had gone through even though it would not have had any merit.
I believe there's actually 9 of them; 4 A340-500's and 5 A340-600's the latter being only a slightly better airplane.