Check out the new Thai Airways Royal Barge special livery

The Flight Detective
a painting of people on a plane

Thai Airways have a history of painting the royal barge on their aircraft. In the past, this has appeared on a Boeing 747-400 as well as an Airbus A330-300.

This time the livery appears on a Boeing 777-300, marking a return for what is officially called the Suphannahong Royal Barge. A detail of the livery is at the top of this article, showing a rowing team with oars raised which is symbolic of birds in flight.

Royal Barge Boeing 777

The reason this aircraft has been styled this way is to commemorate the Royal Coronation Ceremony 2019, which took place on 4 May. According to the Thai Airways press release, it will remain like this through to 31 December 2022.

Since the aircraft is a Boeing 777-300, it will be used on routes around Asia such as those from Bangkok to Seoul, Taipei, Beijing, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Sapporo. Registered HS-TKF, the aircraft has been royally bestowed the name “Lahan Sai”. I’m not sure whether someone in the Royal Family literally chose the name or not, though! The airline did need permission use the royal barge, so it’s entirely possible they had a say in it. A sacred ceremony to bless the Boeing 777 was undertaken by Phra Maha Raja Guru Bidhi Sri Visudhigun as well.

Overall Thoughts

In Thailand, the King is revered and it is an offence to say anything derogatory about him. Therefore, it is very special to have this kind of livery for Thai Airways.

The press release is very interesting as it gives an insight into the Thai culture, even though it is ostensibly just about the aeroplane. You get to read about the actual royal barge which is fascinating stuff.

What do you think of this special livery? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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All images via Thai Airways on Twitter.

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Chuck Griffin

LOVE the Thai barge liveries. Way back when SAS was supporting the development of Thai, SAS sported the Viking longboats on their aircraft and the Thai barge livery was conveniently similar to that of SAS. I for one would love to see some SAS planes in an updated (or heritage!) longboat livery. But for now, I’ll be happy with the Thai planes.

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