In the present paper, thermal conductivity coefficient of high-temperature molecular and atomic gases with excited electronic states is studied using both the kinetic theory algorithm developed by authors earlier and the well known simple expression for the thermal conductivity coefficient proposed by Eucken and generalized by Hirschfelder. The influence of large collision diameters of excited states on the thermal conductivity is discussed. The limit of validity of the Eucken correction is evaluated on the basis of the kinetic theory calculations; an improved model suitable for air species under high-temperature conditions is proposed.