Having taken delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft back in September, Thai Airways is now flying the newest addition to its fleet on its Bangkok-Taipei route.

The aircraft is operating flights TG632 from Bangkok and TG633 from Taipei, a six-times-weekly service that operates on all days except Tuesday. The former is a morning flight that departs at 0815 and arrives in Taipei just after midday at 1245, while the latter is an afternoon flight that leaves Taipei at 1355 and arrives back in Bangkok at 1650, though flight times do vary slightly on Mondays.

Overall Thai Airways flies 20 weekly flights between the two cities – its two other non-stop flights are each daily services and are flown using its B777-300.

The main difference between the airline’s offerings on these two flights is a change of layout – the new Dreamliner’s 30 fully flat Royal Silk (business class) seats are laid out 1-2-1, giving direct aisle access to all passengers, while the B777-300 is configured in a much more claustrophobic 2-3-2, though the latter does have four more seats than the Dreamliner. There are also fewer economy class seats in the Dreamliner compared with the B777-300 (268 versus 330).

While the airline has stated that the aircraft will allow Thai Airways to fly longer distances and to new destinations directly from Thailand – such as non-stop to North America – the new Dreamliner is currently only set for operations in Asia-Pacific.

According to the airline, more than 560,000 travellers go between Thailand and Taiwan each year.

thaiairways.com