ASEAN aviation: Full steam ahead for aviation integration

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ASEAN AVIATION
Full steam ahead for aviation integration
SUCHAT SRITAMA
The Nation

BANGKK: -- The Asean Single Aviation Market aims to link the region with Europe, China, India and South Korea to take advantage of Asean Economy Community 2015.

More than 100 aviation experts and airline executives from Asean and Europe were invited to Bangkok this week to discuss future aviation development for Southeast Asia with the focus on air connectivity.

Tran Dong Phuong, Asean's director of finance, industry and infrastructure, said yesterday that Asean cooperation has been taking place in the context of greater regional integration across economic sectors and has become one of the 12 designated priority developments for the region.

From 2004-10, Asean applied its energy to laying a firm foundation for its aviation industry and is now set to achieve an "open skies" regime through a roadmap that will facilitate greater collaboration and marketing access.

"For today, we have achieved the 'fifth freedom' agreement as all nations agreed with", he said, referring to the "freedoms of the air," a set of commercial aviation rights granting one country's airlines to enter another country's air space. The 'fifth freedom' is the right to fly between two foreign countries on a flight originating or ending in one's own country.

"We hope the 'open skies' policy will be completed by the end of this year."

Asean continued working to enhance connectivity within the region. It is also reaching to engage with outside dialog partners.

The Chinese government has granted Asean airlines "fifth freedom" to 28 cities excluding the big three - Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - with no limit on frequency. "After China, Asean is now negotiating with the EU, South Korea and India for a similar agreement. Key joint work will be economic, aviation safety and security, and air traffic management and consultations," he said.

However, Asean's ASAM roadmap is expected to face challenges, particularly in the areas of marketing implementation, infrastructure, such as airports, further support from technical components like safety and security, air traffic management, and human resources, especially the quality of pilots and the shortage of skilled pilots. Asean, however, is strengthening its marketing strategy to cope with emerging airlines and frequencies of flights with lower prices. It is also seeking new routes.

Asean airlines experienced double-digit capacity growth in the four years to 2013. The share of budget airlines in the region surged from 13.2 per cent in 2003 to 57 per cent in 2014. Demand for seats also jumped from 2 million to 50 million.

The region drew 100 million international tourists in 2014 while intra-regional travel reached nearly 50 million arrivals.

Erick Ferrandez, manager of international technical cooperation at the European Aviation Safety Agency, said the EU and Asean have begun to talk about aviation collaboration not only for the economy and connectivity, but also for safety and security.

The EU has likely the best practices for Asean nations to learn from. The EU took several decades to complete economic development.

"Asean still has a long way to go, but the EU will assist in all the needs of several key areas," he said.

The EU and Asean last July agreed to improve connectivity. The EU will continue supporting Asean institutional building with 170 million euros (Bt6 billion), more than double the previous budget.

The EU-Asean Aviation summit held in Singapore in February last year outlined plans to boost travel between the two regions and established the Asean-EU aviation networking group to discuss and monitor progress of the work.

Voradej Harnprasert, deputy permanent secretary-general of the Transport Ministry, said enhancing air connectivity in Asean would help Thailand gain more advantages, as the country could become a true aviation hub for the region and also easily link up with other regions.

Many people in the aviation industry, such as crews and pilots, would soon be able to work overseas at any airline when the "fifth freedom" agreement is completed.

Thailand will have a better chance of receiving more tourists not only from the region, but also from third countries.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Full-steam-ahead-for-aviation-integration-30255746.html


-- The Nation 2015-03-11

[Strangebrew]

Boy is TAT drooling again?