News
Shocked by Thailand’s failure to fix oversight lapses
Says regional airline association director general
September 1st 2015
Asia-Pacific’s leading airline association said it is shocked by the failure of Thailand to correct shortcomings in the country’s safety oversight procedures identified by global industry auditors. Read More »
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| Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines director general Andrew Herdman: ‘People don’t distinguish between the fact that this is a commentary on regulatory oversight. It doesn’t mean the airlines or the airports are unsafe’ |
The director general of the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines, Andrew Herdman, said Thailand is facing bans or restrictions on its airlines because it has been slow to respond to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) demands to improve air safety management and inspection systems.
The FAA and ICAO issued recommendations for air safety improvements in Thailand after separate audits of Thailand’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) exposed serious flaws and shortcomings in its operations.
“Thailand was a shock because it has a huge travel and tourism sector, a huge aviation history and yet it has been caught out because they’ve have insufficient resources,” said Herdman. “If it was Cambodia or Myanmar, who may have a plan but are struggling to implement it, you might understand the situation.
“But aviation and tourism is a critical part of Thailand’s economy so its leaders don’t need to be persuaded that this is an important issue that must be fixed. Even when the shortcomings were highlighted the response was not sufficiently quick. They had sixty days and asked for more time. It’s very frustrating because it is jeopardizing the reputation of Thailand’s airlines,” he said.
“People don’t distinguish between the fact that this is a commentary on regulatory oversight. It doesn’t mean the airlines or the airports are unsafe.”
The most recent audit, by the FAA in July, found several flaws in Thailand’s air safety systems, including a serious shortage of qualified staff to conduct safety inspections of airlines. It gave the DCA 65 days to rectify its problems.
If it fails to meet the deadline the FAA will likely downgrade Thailand’s status from Category 1 to Category 2, which would mean any Thai-registered airline now operating to the U.S. can continue to fly there, but cannot add destinations or change aircraft types.
Ironically, that would have little impact in Thailand. Thai Airways International (THAI), which is the only Thai airline operating to the U.S., announced last month that it would terminate its only U.S. service, Bangkok- Los Angeles, from October as part of its latest restructuring.
More serious would be bans imposed by Europe. If Thailand fails to meet ICAO demands, the European Union will place Thai operators on a black list, halting any services into Europe. THAI flies to Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo, Frankfurt, London, Stockholm, Zurich, Madrid and Rome, although it has announced plans to drop Madrid and Rome.
As a result of the audits, many countries in Asia and Europe have increased inspections of Thai-registered aircraft when they arrive at non-Thai airports.
Thailand’s situation has shone a spotlight on safety oversight in several Asian countries. With airlines in Indonesia still on the European black list (State-owned Garuda Indonesia is exempted) and the Philippines only recently restored to Category 1 by the FAA, the negative results in Thailand present a grim picture of air safety standards in the region.
Herdman said the industry is actually “extraordinarily safe”, even when the regulator does not keep up with the airline industry. “You can have a very safe industry with lax regulatory oversight, but it’s not desirable,” he said.
“It would [probably] be heresy to say it, but there’s a grain of truth in the fact that regulatory oversight could be non-existent and you could still be absolutely fine. But you are more comfortable if you have regulatory oversight to make sure it stays that way. It deters anyone from thinking they can take shortcuts.”
Earlier in the year, after the safety auditors published their findings, Indonesia banned Thai-registered airlines from increasing their flights or changing the types of aircraft that fly into the country.
Thailand’s Minister for Transport, ACM Prajin, said the decision would not impede Thai Airways International (THAI) as the flag carrier did not plan to increase flights to Indonesia.
THAI operates seven flights out of Suvarnabhumi airport to Bali weekly and 10 flights to Jakarta each week.
The Indonesian Transport Ministry said it would also ask to check airlines’ operation certifications for chartered flights to determine if they are in line with required standards. No Thai carrier operates chartered flights to Indonesia.
