Thailand suspends international flights by some Thai airlines

[webfact]

Thailand suspends international flights by some Thai airlines

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's military government has suspended international flights by Thai airlines that have not received new operator certificates from the country's aviation body, a spokesman said.

 

The measure will affect 12 airlines which together have a market share of only 2 percent and so will have little impact on the country's tourism-dependent economy, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand(CAAT) said on Tuesday.

 

Thailand's aviation industry has been under scrutiny after the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)downgraded the country in June 2015, giving it a red flag for missing a deadline to resolve significant safety concerns.

 

The government's move comes ahead of an ICAO's visit to Thailandnext week.

 

"They want to see a strict measure. The government had to order CAAT to suspend operations of airlines which did not pass assessment," government spokesman Sansern Kaewkumnerd told reporters.

 

The Thai military junta often invokes executive power, known as Article 44, to clear bureaucratic hurdles.

 

CAAT was set up in 2015 by the military government to tackle flaws in commercial aviation. It is tasked with auditing and recertifying Thai commercial airlines to make sure they are in line with ICAO standards.

 

Chula Sukmanop, director general of CAAT, told Reuters the suspension will affect 12 airlines, including Orient Thai Airlines and Thai Vietjet Air.

 

"It's not that they failed the assessment, but the assessment has not been completed yet," Chula said.

 

"They can resume their flights as soon as they pass the assessment," he said, adding that the two airlines are expected to resume their international flights as soon as next month.

 

The suspension is expected to be lifted for the other airlines by Jan. 31, 2018, Chula said.

 

The two airlines named were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.

 

(Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Pracha Hariraksapitak; Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Writing by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Alexander Smith)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-13

[tracker1]

Thailand's aviation industry has been under scrutiny after the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)downgraded the country in June 2015, giving it a red flag for missing a deadline to resolve significant safety concerns.The government's move comes ahead of an ICAO's visit to Thailandnext week.

"They can resume their flights as soon as they pass the assessment," he said, adding that the two airlines are expected to resume their international flights as soon as next month. After ICOA's visit !

 

 

 

[alant]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

"It's not that they failed the assessment, but the assessment has not been completed yet," Chula said.

[Cadbury]

Does not surprise that Vietjet Air is on the banned list. Vietjet most likely has the worst reputation of any S.E. Asian airline for late departures and arrivals. It is a low budget airline which struggles to provide any sort of quality service and runs on a hit-and-miss budget timetable. One has to wonder about it's maintenance budget.

It has even been known to take passengers to the wrong destination.

 

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/crew-of-budget-airline-vietjet-air-suspended-after-plane-lands-at-wrong-airport/news-story/b741f5075a2b3050f56fc77bb042631c

 

It is a bit like a mystery tour.....you don't know when you will leave or when you will arrive or where you will end up.

[inThailand]

Will passing the assessment be like getting a drivers license? 200B and your good to go!

[boooker]

It is a mystery by all these jet ailiners waiting to get answers whom CAAT have not the administratiin tools or ethics .....as even 2% doesent matter each jet in the ground cost thousands of thb and lost if income.

If application submitted and it needs a Pilot to get his private Plane running upwards to 1 year and longer some have to estimate what happen to jet operators.

The rule game is not icao its their own admin.

[mark01]

Just wait til they fail the submarine operators certification.

 

[Awinkl]

It would certainly be helpful to know - who those 12 Airlines are?

Why is that a Secret?

 

[Grusa]

CAAT is a bunch of nice guys and girls on the ground, doing a job they know nothing about, in a language they cannot understand, and with minimal resources. Upstairs, a bunch of lawyers and career civil servants who know nothing about aviation, try to cobble together a system which has everything to do with heaps of paper, layers of regulation, blame assignment, and nothing to do with safety, flying or pilots.

There are several model aviation authorities in the world, whose systems work and who interfere as little as possible in the day-to-day management of fliers. Typically for Thailand, CAAT is too concerned with loss of face to consult, or accept advice from, outside agencies, and when they do adopt "farang" concepts they translate and bastardise them to the point of insanity.

Until they accept that English is the de-facto and de-jure language of aviation worldwide, that all treaties, protocols, manuals and procedures are produced in English, processed in English, and signed off in English, that all their staff need to be able to read, write and understand technical English, safety management is going nowhere. Producing all their documents in Thai, as they now do, creates an environment where there is corruption, obfustication, delay and frustration. These things are the cause, not the cure, of lapses in safety and "incidents", most of which are covered up, never investigated, or blamed on anything other than the failure of any Thai person or organisation. When blame can be assigned elsewhere, be sure the failure will be prosecuted to the limit of the law, even if it is a genuine accident. 

Most CAAT inspectors, inspecting light aircraft for airworthiness certification, have never flown in a light aircraft! Two now have, I believe they were scared sh*tless, but could not lose face by admitting it! They have to be shown the equipment on board and have it explained, they do not recognise anything on the panel.

A newbie inspector, female, and trained on Airbus, was assigned to do a Light Sport Aircraft inspection. She lost so much face in front of the Farang owner/pilot and the Thai mechanic signing off on the work, because she new nothing about light aircraft certification, systems, maintenance schedules. She refused to sign off on the inspection because she was applying the wrong standards, and would not accept correction gracefully - to the point she was even laughed at by the mechanic. She has never been seen since, her bosses eventually issued the certification in spite of, not because of, her "findings". I presume she is happy signing off on Airbuses, or maybe she is now a department head.....

[boooker]

Aviation is a high end level of specialized knowledge an SOP in Thai is only lifting problems unless each page have an exact translation .I had written SOPs policies and implement the same here in Thailand towards International level....guess what it took them less then 24 hrs to ignore assigned policies simple unable to scope with an answer it would be to complicated to understand.If a general aviation professional whom deal with direct flights onboard and cannot even calculate the FTP of rest time this under many others scares any pro.

It is just beyond me as to why a bunch of couchcrackers deal in the aviation field with an 42% of overall understanding...maybe thats why the need of redirect constandly in order to keep the dummies in the seats.But again the list of jet operators listed are well known so while the so declared assessment is not concluded to CAAT or is it simple no need to declare those under ICAO simple but them on hold...old tricks never getting ridger.....but how much these CAAT DCA officials need to get it done...example if you need an recertificate as operator and get an answer that the officer is not at desk but while you call he is sitting right 10m from you can only tell you how these officials working...bias at the best.

Hurting the industry and thats all

[Grusa]

7 minutes ago, boooker said:

 

Hurting the industry and thats all

It's not just the industry! It's hurting General Aviation in its widest sense, including private flying, for both Thais and non-Thais, at every level: Pilot training and licencing, aircraft sales, purchases, registration, maintenance, airfield/airstrip licencing, leisure activity, sport flying.

They have made it so difficult that many people simply give up and walk away. Others can't be bothered with the paperwork, fly illegally and come a cropper, one way or another.

Thailand has historically been one of the few SE Asian countries where private GA exists. They are slowly strangling a golden goose, or flock of them!

[MobileContent]

4 hours ago, Grusa said:

It's not just the industry! It's hurting General Aviation in its widest sense, including private flying, for both Thais and non-Thais, at every level: Pilot training and licencing, aircraft sales, purchases, registration, maintenance, airfield/airstrip licencing, leisure activity, sport flying.

They have made it so difficult that many people simply give up and walk away. Others can't be bothered with the paperwork, fly illegally and come a cropper, one way or another.

Thailand has historically been one of the few SE Asian countries where private GA exists. They are slowly strangling a golden goose, or flock of them!

I have to fully agree with you. It should also be noted that Mjets should not at all on the list as they are a very professional run private jet operation. 

[simon43]

..has suspended international flights ..

 

Does that mean that internal flights are still allowed by these airlines? And if so, why?

[tryasimight]

6 hours ago, simon43 said:

 

 

 

Does that mean that internal flights are still allowed by these airlines? And if so, why?

I'm no expert in aviation, but there's a good chance that it isn't all to do with aircraft safety as such but more to do with irrelevant administrative bullshit.