Airline News
Pressure on Thai operators mounts
July 27th 2015
Ironically, Indonesia, an aviation market continuously making the headlines for lacklustre safety, has joined Australia, China, Cambodia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore in freezing the number of flights and the types of aircraft Thai-based carriers are allowed to use on flights to the archipelago. Read More »
Thailand's aviation industry has been reeling since news first came out in March that its Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) had failed an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) inspection in February.
In a bid to amend shortcomings in its issuance of Air Operator Certificates and Air Service Licences, the Thai DCA has since begun subjecting applications to additional scrutiny in line with ICAO’s requirements. As a result, some start-ups have been forced to defer their launches amid more thorough and rigorous testing.
As part of its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in early July undertook its own audit of Thailand's aviation environment, potentially leading to a costly and embarrassing downgrade to Category 2 for the country. The FAA’s findings will be formally announced within 65 days.
Meanwhile, flag carrier Thai Airways International (THAI) will further reduce its network as it ceases operations to Los Angeles, its sole U.S. destination, and Rome from October 25, in a bid to reverse losses totalling 29.6 billion baht ($865 million) accumulated over the past seven quarters. That said, new competition for THAI is on the horizon as Lufthansa long-haul budget subsidiary Eurowings will start serving THAI’s Suvarnabhumi hub, as well as Phuket, from December using a pair of ex-EVA Air A330-200s on wet-lease from Sun Express Deutschland.
In the interim, Etihad Airways is likely to gain further market share in Thailand as it last week signed a landmark $1.25 million with The Tourism Authority of Thailand to increase tourism to Thailand from priority markets including the United Arab Emirates, UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and South Africa, all key THAI inbound markets.
