Delivery of the first plane was expected in 2011 and the new aircraft would replace aging ones and expand its fleet to 30-35 from 18 now, Udom told Reuters.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Orient Thai Airlines plans to order 20 new aircraft, eight Boeing <BA.N> 787-9s and 12 Boeing 737-900s, at a cost of $2.5 billion in April 2008, chairman Udom Tantiprasongchai said on Wednesday.
Delivery of the first plane was expected in 2011 and the new aircraft would replace aging ones and expand its fleet to 30-35 from 18 now, Udom told Reuters.
"The new aircraft will help expand our fleet and replace existing ones. We have 18 planes and some of them are due to be decommissioned," he said.
Some of the new planes would also be used to expand the fleet of its budget airline subsidiary One-Two-Go, which suffered a crash on the Thai resort isle of Phuket in September which killed 89 people, Udom said.
!ADVERTISEMENT!(Reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn, writing by Khettiya Jittapong, editing by Michael Battye)
