Thai Airways abandons all First class flights to Australia.

All Thai Airways flights to Australia will be carried out by 777s from the 29th March and there will be no First Class cabin. This will be a huge reduction of premium seats to these highly popular destinations.

While the new Thai Airways 777s are very good - so far only one of the six Thai 777-300s is retrofitted with the new business class seats, and the rest have the appauling Thai cradle seat. The retrofitted 777-300 (known inside TG as "77R") has 5 rows in business class instead of 7 and rows 11 are configured 2-2-2.

A 777-300 will operate TG991/995/996/992 while a 777-200ER operates TG993/994. TG991/992 continues to operate the Bangkok - Sydney - Brisbane - Bangkok routing. For Bangkok to Melbourne TG981/982, currently operates 5 weekly (x24), will increase to Daily from 30MAR08. This brings number of frequencies to 14 weekly. Bangkok - Perth TG997/998 will be operated by A330-300 instead of 777-300 from 30MAR08, followed by TG985/986 in July.