Thai Sky Airlines

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Categories: Defunct airlines of Thailand | Airlines established in 2004

Image:Thai Sky Airlines.jpg

Two Thai Sky Airlines Lockheed L-1011 aircraft at Don Mueang International Airport

Thai Sky Airlines was a charter passenger and cargo airline based in Thailand.

1 Code data
2 History
3 Incidents and accidents
4 Fleet
5 References
6 External links

Code data

IATA: 9I

History

Plans for purchasing of aircraft and setting up of airport operations started in 2002 and the airline was officially established on January 30, 2004. The first flight to Hong Kong was launched on May 19, 2005. Flights to Kuala Lumpur were launched on May 21, 2005. It is a joint venture with Thai, Hong Kong and Taiwan interests, and was set up primarily to operate charter flights for tour groups travelling from Hong Kong to Thailand. The airline ceased operations in 2006.

Incidents and accidents

January 2, 2006 - Thai Sky flight 9I287 from Bangkok, blew a front tire on landing at Incheon. There were no injuries. There were no spares for the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, so one had to be brought from Bangkok, causing a day's delay. [1]
February 1, 2006 - a Thai Sky Lockheed L-1011 Tristar filled with Hong Kong tour groups aborted take-off at Hong Kong International airport. The Lockheed was grounded due to technical reasons, leaving angry and terrified tourists stranded. They started negotiating with Thai Sky Airlines for a refund of their paid tour. At the same time, returning Hong Kong tourists at Bangkok International Airport refused to board a plane from the same airline to take them back to Hong Kong, as they were worried about their own safety. In the end, some tourists agreed to board the plane. This plane landed at Hong Kong on February 2 at 6:10am, which made it possible for the group waiting in Hong Kong to finally depart for Bangkok on that same day at 8:19am. The incident resulted in both flights suffering a 12-hour delay.

Fleet

At its peak, the Thai Sky Airlines fleet included ^[1] three Lockheed L-1011 Tristar jets. One of the few airlines still flying the plane, it had two L-1011s for passenger service and one for cargo. However, all three have been parked since August 2006 for lack of spare parts, and were cancelled from the Thai register on October 6th, 2006^[2]

In October 2006, Thai Sky acquired a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 as a replacement.^[3] However, the aircraft was soon repossessed, leaving the airline with no planes^[2].