Thai Airways International Pcl. has postponed the introduction of five Airbus SAS A330-300s because of delays at Koito Industries Ltd., the Japanese seatmaker that said this week it had falsified safety-test data.

“The planes should’ve been here by now. The seats are the only thing delaying them,” Raj Tanta-Nanta, the carrier’s vice president for investor relations, said by phone. “We can’t keep going like this.”

The airline, Thailand’s biggest, doesn’t know when Koito will deliver the seats and it may hand the contract to another supplier this month, Raj said. That could delay the planes by a further six months, he said.

Singapore Airlines Ltd., Continental Airlines Inc. and All Nippon Airways Co. have also been forced to delay new planes because of late Koito seats. The Yokohama-based company has pledged to repair about 150,000 seats in some 1,000 planes after saying it made seats using uncertified materials and with unauthorized design changes.

Koito is unable to say when it may resume shipping seats, spokesman Yoichiro Kuroiwa said Saturday. He declined to comment on how many plane deliveries may be delayed or on specific customers.

The company hasn’t calculated how much fixing the seats will cost, he said.
32 Airlines

The seats to be fixed are in planes operated by 32 airlines in countries including the US, China, Japan and Singapore. Koito plans to make all of the repairs, which predominantly affect Boeing Co. and Airbus aircraft, this year.

Thai has no plans to take any of its existing planes out of service because of Koito seats, Raj said. Japan Airlines Corp. has also said that it will continue flying the 184 planes it has fitted with Koito seats. All Nippon has 141 planes equipped with seats from the supplier.

Koito should face “tough civil sanctions,” Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said late Friday. The seatmaker’s actions were “extremely reckless.”

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., which has seven planes in its mainline fleet using Koito seats, will take whatever steps are deemed necessary by regulators, according to an e-mailed reply to Bloomberg questions. The Hong Kong-based carrier said it isn’t aware of any specific issues with its seats.