BANGKOK, July 11 (Xinhua) -- The Thai cabinet on Tuesday acknowledged the air force's planned procurement of eight trainer aircraft from South Korea, according to air force spokesman AVM Pongsak Semachai.

During a weekly cabinet meeting at Government House chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the planned purchase of the second batch of T-50TH jet trainers was acknowledged by the cabinet.

Those South Korean trainer aircraft are to be procured at a combined cost of 8.8 billion baht (about 258 million U.S. dollars), which is to be paid on three-year instalment basis, AVM Pongsak said.

The Prayut government earlier had approved the air force's plan to procure a total of 16 T-50TH jet trainers, four of which were delivered in the first batch, leaving the second batch of eight aircraft of that type and the third batch of another four aircraft for future delivery, according to the air force spokesman.

The South Korean jet trainers were primarily intended to replace Czech's L-39 jet trainers which the Thai air force has been using over the last two decades, he said.