Airline News
THAI ordered to slash perks, DCA hopeful on FAA audit
November 6th 2015
Thai aviation authorities are hopeful they have satisfied Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors’ requirements in a three-day review of the country’s commercial aviation safety standards concluded last week. Read More »
Thai transport minister, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, said Thailand had addressed and rectified 35 points raised by the FAA in its condemnatory July audit. "I've been told that we have solved them all," Khun Arkhom told media in Bangkok, and added Thailand was ready for the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA’s) follow-up inspection from November 9 -11.
Chula Sukmanop, director-general of the Airport Department and acting director of the Office of Civil Aviation, described the meeting of Thai authorities and FAA representatives as "satisfactory".
Thailand faces a downgrade from a FAA Category 1 to Category 2 safety rating if it does not show improvement. If the downgrade is applied, Thai carriers will be banned from entering the U.S. or even code sharing with a U.S. carrier. The FAA will present its findings by November 27.
Thailand’s red-flagging by safety bodies such as EASA, FAA and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which were also closely followed by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau banning new flight schedules by Thai-registered carriers, has been widely ignored by their Chinese counterparts. In recent weeks, Beijing has approved countless new route applications from Thai operators into the Mainland, signalling it is not too concerned with what global regulatory bodies have to say about Thailand. Beijing has been using its own inspection standards to decide on the issue, industry executives involved in the matter have told the Bangkok Post. Thai AirAsia X, NokScoot and Thai AirAsia have launched routes or increased frequency on existing ones, while Thai Lion Air chief, Aswin Yangkirativorn, remained optimistic his carrier’s application to launch its first Chinese routes from Bangkok early next year would be endorsed.
Orient Thai Airlines made the headlines this week as news emerged the budget carrier planned to expand its fleet from 22 to 60 aircraft in the next five years, enabling it to carry 5 million passengers, compared to 610,000 last year, said Peter Xiong, general manager for marketing at Orient Thai.
Under Chinese management, the 18-year-old carrier aimed to digress from its core Thailand-China charter market to add destinations in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, according to Xiong. To support its growth, Orient Thai has recently signed up for Amadeus’ global GDS.
Xiong declined to provide details of how Orient Thai's fleet would grow, or what types of aircraft it would seek. The carrier’s fleet consists entirely of ageing Boeing frames, including nine 737s, five 767s and four 747s, with a weighted average age of 24.5 years, currently deployed on routes between Bangkok and Nanjing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xian, Nanning, Changsha, Nanchang and Hong Kong, and between Phuket and Nanning, Chengdu, Chongqing and Xian.
At embattled Thai Airways International (THAI), the national carrier has been ordered to cut more costs, especially any remaining perks offered to its executives, transport minister Arkhom said Tuesday. THAI’s current organisational structure was found to be inappropriate for its staff numbers and their work responsibilities, he said, adding THAI was a large organisation with a huge cost burden, comprising of enormous perks offered to high-level executives who were found to have "ridiculously low responsibilities”.
Despite a previous restructuring of the organisation in which more than 77 executive positions were reshuffled, THAI had not achieved any significant cost cutting so far, he said. That was why the previous restructuring plan needed to be reviewed to find new, more practical ways to boost the financial position of the loss-making carrier, he added.
Khun Arkhom also questioned why THAI president and chief executive, Jotikasthira Charamporn, who is paid about 900,000 baht ($25,340) a month, had to hire a foreign adviser, ex-Oman Air chief Wayne Pearce, for 10.5 million baht for a six-month period.
