Airline News
In focus: Safety in Thailand and South Korea
May 18th 2015
Officials from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) last week performed ad hoc inspections of NokScoot, Orient Thai Airlines, City Airways, and R Airlines to determine the accuracy of their MRO records and procedures. Read More » While the CAAC had not revealed its findings at press time, two executives close to the developments told the Bangkok Post that regardless of the outcome, the CAAC would likely ban all Thai charters from operating in China to protect Mainland carriers looking to carve out their own market share in the growing China-Thailand traffic.
The Thai Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) has come under renewed scrutiny for failing to update foreign authorities about the “significant safety concerns” raised in the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO’s) last audit in January. Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed last month, the DCA agreed to submit regular updates to the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB), outlining its progress in rectifying the list of security breaches raised by the United Nations aviation watchdog. In return, the JCAB lifted a charter-flight ban on six Thai-registered carriers, including Thai Airways International (THAI), NokScoot, Asian Air, Jet Asia Airways, Asia Atlantic Airlines and Thai AirAsia X. The agreement allows the airlines to operate charter flights to Japan until May 31.
Thailand’s Transport Minister, Prajin Juntong, said the Japanese authorities had contacted DCA director general, Somchai Phiphuttawat, to complain they had not observed any improvements in coordination with the Thai authorities, nor received sufficient progress reports. The DCA said it had since submitted progress reports to ICAO and JCAB, though neither regulator had commented on the matter as TWIAPA went to press.
Recourse comes from South Korea where the Korea Office of Civil Aviation announced it would immediately remove bans on chartered THAI and Thai AirAsia X flights and allow the two carriers to increase frequencies. Meanwhile, the authority said local Korean airlines would face new, more stringent reporting requirements as part of a government drive to increase transparency of transport safety standards after several recent incidents, including the Asiana Airlines crash in Hiroshima. The new legislation, which will carry fines of up to $100 million won ($92,000) per offence, will require the disclosure of safety and certification test results and publicly accessible maintenance and inspection records for any Korea-registered aircraft.
