Thai Airways is “accelerating” its capital restructuring plan through a debt-to-equity swap and an additional share placement, as it looks to exit rehabilitation and resume trading by the second quarter of 2025. Citing the carrier’s negative shareholder equity of Bt40.4 billion ($1.2 billion) as of 30 June, the carrier says: “Thai is therefore accelerating the capital restructuring plan to turn Thai’s shareholders’ equity into positive through debt-to-equity conversion in two parts: converting the original debt of creditors into compulsory capital and granting creditors the right to convert additional debt into capital voluntarily.” The carrier had said in its mid-year earnings review that it aims to have positive shareholders' equity in 2024’s annual financial statements, which is one of the conditions for exiting rehabilitation. Thai will allocate up to 14.9 billion new shares at Bt2.55 per share to creditors – including the finance ministry – as part of a mandatory debt-to-equity swap that was approved in October 2022. At the same time, it will offer 6.81 billion shares for a voluntary debt-to-equity conversion, also at Bt2.55 per share. It also plans to offer 9.82 billion new shares to existing shareholders, employees and investors at no less than Bt2.55 per share, which will include shares remaining from the voluntary debt-to-equity swap. The shares issued should not exceed 59% of the total number of shares offered, including shares remaining from the voluntary conversion process, it states. To maintain the stability of share prices, plan administrators have set a lock-up period of a year after the carrier resumes trading on the stock exchange, under which creditors who receive additional shares cannot sell allocated shares in the first six months and only up to 25% in the second half. The capital restructuring process is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, says Piyasvasti Amranand, chairman of the carrier’s business rehabilitation plan executive committee, adding that the finance ministry is still expected to be the major shareholder post-restructuring. “It is expected that Thai Airways will be able to file a petition with the Central Bankruptcy Court to cancel the rehabilitation and return Thai Airways’ shares to trading on the Stock Exchange within the second quarter of 2025,” he states.

Vietnam Airlines plans to reconfigure the cabins of 23 Airbus A321s using seats supplied by Safran. The new cabin layout for the single-aisles will comprise eight business and 201 economy seats, the carrier says. Data shows that Vietnam Airlines has 40 A321ceos, 20 A321neos and one A320neo in its fleet, and another two A320neos on order. The A321neos and eight of the A321ceos are configured with eight business and 195 economy seats, while the remaining 32 A321ceos have 16 business and either 162 or 168 economy seats. Beyond seats, Safran will provide internet-access equipment for 20 A321neos and 17 Boeing 787s, Vietnam Airlines says. It adds that Safran will continue to supply spare parts for business seats on its 787s and A350s. Vietnam Airlines has 11 787-9s, five 787-10s and 14 A350-900s. It has one more 787-10 on order.

The US National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB) has started an investigation into the cause of a smoke detection and post-landing fire on a Frontier Airlines Airbus A321ceo that made an emergency landing at Las Vegas Harry Reid International airport on 5 October. Frontier says on X that flight 1326 from San Diego was in the process of landing around 15:15 local time when the crew detected smoke and declared an emergency. "The aircraft landed safely and all passengers and crew were evacuated via airstairs. No injuries were reported, and passengers have been bussed to the terminal," it adds. Frontier says that there were 190 passengers and seven crew on board. The NTSB confirms on its own X account that it is investigating the emergency landing. Video and air traffic control recordings of the incident indicate that there was a brief fire on the right side of the aircraft upon landing that was extinguished by firefighters as the aircraft came to a rest on runway 26 right at the airport. The recordings also indicate that the aircraft suffered radio communications issues during the approach, and briefly lost radar contact, but the crew were able to resume communications with emergency crew and air traffic control once the aircraft had stopped. Flight tracking shows that the aircraft involved bears registration N701FR, which corresponds to MSN 6793. The CFM International CFM56-powered aircraft was built in 2015 and operated since new by Frontier, and is managed by ST Engineering Aerospace Resources, fleets data shows.