Montree Jumrieng, managing director of THAI's technical department, signed a memorandum of understanding with John Leahy, Airbus's chief operating officer for customers, on Wednesday at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed though THAI president Piyasvasti Amranand described the prices as "very good". After the flag carrier's board agreed on June 18 to acquire the wide-body jets, he said the price was 31 billion baht excluding engines, seats, inflight entertainment system and spare engines.

An A330-300 carries a current catalogue price of US$212.4 million.

The aircraft will be delivered to THAI during three time slots, two by the end of 2011, three in 2012 and two in 2013, joining an existing fleet of 20 A330-300s flying to destinations across the Asia-Pacific region.

The seven Airbus planes are part of 15 new wide-body jets the flag carrier is acquiring as replacements to ageing machines over the next four years when the airline will retire 25 old aircraft including several B747-400 jumbo jets now used on long-haul routes.

As part of the same project, THAI will acquire eight long-range Boeing B777- 300ERs through leasing.

Dr Piyasvasti said negotiations with lessors for the jets should be finalised by the end of next month.

The Boeings, each capable of carrying 350 passengers, expect to be leased for 15 years for 79 billion baht.

Airbus said it has more than 1,000 orders for various versions of the A330 aircraft. Almost 700 have already been delivered and the aircraft are currently flying with at least 80 operators.