Thailand admits 'urgent' need to improve aviation safety

[webfact]

Thailand admits 'urgent' need to improve aviation safety
AFP

BANGKOK: -- Thai authorities Monday said they would use special powers under junta rule to "urgently" improve airline safety as several carriers face bans on new international flights following concerns raised by a UN aviation agency.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations body, recently reported "significant safety concerns" to Thailand's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) after an audit earlier in the year.

In response Japan last week blocked new flights from Thailand in a move affecting charter services by budget carriers Thai AirAsia X and NokScoot as well as Asia Atlantic Airlines, the DCA said, adding existing flights would not be impacted.

Flag carrier Thai Airways has also been hit, saying in a statement on its Facebook page Saturday that two charter flights scheduled for Japan next month had been affected.

At a press conference Monday junta chief and premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha told reporters he would use Section 44 of the interim constitution -- imposed after he seized power from an elected government last May and which gives him absolute powers over legislative, executive and judicial decisions -- to expedite safety improvements.

"We have to accept that we are losing revenue from this, I am serious about solving the problem," he said.

In what appears to be a growing fallout of the ICAO decision a transport ministry official, deputy permanent secretary Voradej Harnprasert, told reporters that airlines including Thai Airways and Nok Air may also face a potential ban on new flights from Seoul and Beijing. It was not immediately possible to confirm these bans.

Prayut also said that he had raised the aviation safety issue with the Japanese prime minister and the South Korean president on the sidelines of the funeral of Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew on Sunday.

- Slipped standards -

The UN body has flagged several safety concerns including Thai aviation department personnel failing to meet international standards and a lack of full aviation regulations, Transport Minister Prajin Juntong told the press conference.

"The audit revealed some concerns relating to air operator certification procedures," ICAO spokesman Anthony Philbin told AFP by email, stressing that ICAO audits review the capability of civil aviation authorities to monitor and manage operational aviation safety.

Thai authorities have set up two new committees to tackle the concerns and will send teams to South Korea, China, Australia and Germany to discuss the issues following a trip to Japan late last week, Prajin added.

Earlier in the day the minister had said Thailand was warned about its aviation management after an earlier ICAO audit in 2005. "(They) asked us to improve our systems. I understand we have to improve urgently."

In its statement released last Thursday the DCA had said it would provide new training for staff and increase airline inspections as part of its overhaul.

Section 44 has been under the spotlight in Thailand in recent days after Prayut Friday said he was considering lifting martial law, imposed two days before May's coup, and replacing it with an order under this controversial portion of the interim charter.

Several local rights groups have urged the junta chief to rethink the plans, issuing a joint statement maintaining their call to lift martial law but saying the impact of invoking the new order would be "much worse".

Under martial law Thailand's generals have banned political gatherings of more than five people, outlawed criticism of the ruling regime and tried civilians in military courts.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2015-03-31

[Somtamnication]

These people simply are not proactive, are they? Always "react" after the lights are turned on.

[webfact]

REGULATORY SYSTEM OVERHAUL
Article 44 to be used to fix aviation woes
SUCHAT SRITAMA,
ANAPAT DEECHUAY
THE NATION

Govt vows to overhaul regulatory system in 2 to 8 months; fears of limits on flights from Thailand

BANGKOK: -- PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha's will use the immense power given to him by invoking Article 44 of the interim charter to address substandard Department of Civil Aviation procedures that may lead to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) downgrading its rating.

Prayut, who will have sweeping powers under Article 44 as the head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), said the department would be promptly made the adhere to the ICAO's standards after the regulatory system was neglected by previous governments.

He said the ICAO had audited the Department of Civil Aviation for years and had found the country had about 300,000 flights a year regulated by just 12 officers.

But he said the number of flights had increased to 600,000 annually, but there were still only 12 officers.

When he asked the department’s director general what had happened, he said he was told the department had proposed to restructure its organisation, amend its laws and increase its manpower and budget, but the process did not happen because of ignorance.

Prayut said he would use Article 44 in a |creative way to get the job done faster.

A committee would be set up to solve this problem and that would be a faster method than using a traditional process, which would have required Cabinet and National Legislation Assembly approval.

The government is scrambling to find urgent solutions to solve the problem, promising to overhaul the substandard regulatory system within two to eight months.

At a press conference yesterday, Transport Minister ACM Prajin Juntong said that it was Prayut who wanted the issue solved within that timeframe.

The Civil Aviation Department, which is in charge of airline licensing, will be overhauled as its limited capacity cannot cope with air traffic growth, Prajin said.

Short-term measures include keeping foreign countries that Thai airlines fly to updated on the ongoing process to address the International Civil Aviation Organisation's |safety concerns.

"The department is substandard due to a |limited number of officers, while the number of airlines has increased five-fold in the past 10 years from 12 to 61," Prajin said, adding that only 41 were in operation and the rest inactive.

He said another urgent task was the need for the department to hire more staff such as aviation experts and that would include foreigners.

He said the department having a digital database was in sight while all airlines including national carrier Thai Airways International may need to be recertified.

"Once we able to enhance our capabilities and meet the requirement of ICAO standards, we will recertify all airlines operating in and out the Kingdom," he said.

The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) placing a ban on the new flight services of four Thai airlines that were certified by the department last month served as a wake-up call to highlight the chronic problem.

At least three more airlines, Asia Atlantic, Jet Asia, and Thai AirAsia X, will be affected if the issue is not resolved promptly as they plan to add more flights to Japan in May and September for a combined total of approximately 180 flights.

NokScoot, which was waiting approval to commence a new charter service to Japan, has reportedly halted the plan because of the ban.

South Korea is reportedly considering follow ing Japan's lead, after the ICAO flagged significant concerns about Thailand's aviation safety on March 20. The UN agency did not announce the concerns publicly but informed relevant countries last week.

In another blow, China has banned Asia Atlantic, NokScoot and Thai AirAsia X from launching new services in the country.

ICAO flagged the significant safety concerns following the department's sluggish response to dealing with issues in eight areas that the body first recommended it tackle back in 2005.

They include personnel licensing and training, airworthiness assessment and certification, accident investigation and airline operations oversight, according to a report by Watson Farley and Williams, an international law firm with a commercial transport practice.

Japan's decision to ban flights also affects special summer services for Thai Airways International, just at a time when scores of Thais were planming to travel to Japan over Songkran.

According to Prajin, airlines will be called to a meeting today to discuss the issue. He said a short-term measure the airlines may need engage is charting flights from other airlines.

An ad-hoc team has been set up to explain the situation to embassies and global airlines. After Japan, the next countries to be briefed will be China, Germany and Australia.

The next step will be the establishment of a committee to be chaired by Prajin.

The committee will be tasked with updating the ICAO on the measures used to tackle the eight areas of concerns every two weeks, as well as updating the prime minister once a week.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Article-44-to-be-used-to-fix-aviation-woes-30257100.html

-- The Nation 2015-03-31

[IsaanUSA]

I'm sure they will get it figured out quickly but I wonder what "air operator certification procedures" really means. Is it related to the flight crew, the air planes, the air traffic control, airport security, or what.

Let's face it, there is too much at stake financially for them not to fix this as soon as possible.

[NongKhaiKid]

So the PM will have to invoke his ' immense powers ' under Art 44 to bring the Dept of Civil Aviation into line and get its sub-standard procedures sorted out.

Says so much about LoS doesn't it ?

[EricBerg]

Sounds like an impossible task to live up to higher standard in a short period. Perhaps Thailand just isn't good enough. Then they should hire people from other countriers that have proven they can.

[BSJ]

Despite being a part of the un the "The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)" seems to do some good. So when they shine the light on the faceless men who are normally lurking in the background that is a good thing. And it will be good if Sth Korea and China start banning flights as well as Japan.

[EyesWideOpen]

You could not possibly make this stuff up. Thailand has had its feet held to

the fire over safety regulation warnings from the ICAO for years, and chose to do

nothing. Now with things really turning to shit, Prayut is going to use his

new mind boggling power from article 44 to fix things ?? Guess things have

moved into crisis mode now......

Perhaps time to bring in some outside farang management

to sort things out, as aircraft operations and the standard Thai face saving are NOT a

good combination......This is what Korean Airlines did, when their operations were

considered so shoddy and unsafe they were facing a travel ban on their aircraft from

foreign countries. In the real world, If you see a problem, assign blame, and fix it.

As Thailand is finding out, sweeping major problems under the rug does not work in

this sector.... So I am guessing a bit of dead wood will be trimmed from the tree,

as incompetent people are removed regardless of who they are connected to.......

Oh damn, Prayut is already ahead of me as I did a bit of reading....

http://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-clips-thailands-wings-with-airline-ban-1427715681

"He also said Thailand might hire foreign experts to help bring its aviation sector into line with international standards following the ICAO report, which, according to the agency’s communications chief Anthony Philbin,“revealed some safety concerns, primarily relating to air operator certification procedures.”

Edited March 30, 2015 by EyesWideOpen

[arthurboy]

Utter incompetence aside, I wonder what a thorough audit of the budgets over the years would look like.

[NongKhaiKid]

Utter incompetence aside, I wonder what a thorough audit of the budgets over the years would look like.

Lots of missing account books, pages and all sorts of forms plus payments, money transfers etc that can't be explained and of course lots of cash that's simply, and inexplicably, gone ' missing '.

[EyesWideOpen]

Utter incompetence aside, I wonder what a thorough audit of the budgets over the years would look like.

I would not be looking at the budget so much, and would be taking a closer look at

the personal wealth of the government people involved who turned a blind eye to so

many safety issues.

Edited March 30, 2015 by EyesWideOpen

[Strangebrew]

Turn on the lights cockroaches run and hide. But hurt a Thai in the wallet and things get fixed. Why can't they say hey look This seems a little weak let's make it better.

[BSJ]

How big is the Thai rug?

[lewy67]

They could implement an ASEAN economic block program to sort this mess. Civil aviation bureaucrats from Singapore could be used on secondment until the operations are up to par and Thai staff trained appropriately. It makes sense but obviously doesn't take into account the all important loss of face.

[tx22cb]

I hope Prayuth uses his powers to tackle the root problems and makes sure that the Thai Department of Civil Aviation is staffed by competent people. What we don't want is a whitewash and the blaming of "unfriendly" reports.

I also suggest Prayuth looks into the maintenance of military aircraft - their planes and helicopters seem to fall out of the sky with alarming frequency.

[colinneil]

Get the problem sorted. How get inexperienced people to do it, only interested in whats in it for me.

Look at Emirates First class airline, using qualified experienced foriegners as top management.

Time for Thai airways to wake up. Get the pigs out of the trough.

[Ricardo]

I'm sure they will get it figured out quickly but I wonder what "air operator certification procedures" really means. Is it related to the flight crew, the air planes, the air traffic control, airport security, or what.

Let's face it, there is too much at stake financially for them not to fix this as soon as possible.

I suspect it would include assessing the adequacy of the new airline's financial-backing, because starting-up properly is a costly process, and maintenance-systems and backup-arrangements ?

It's been about a decade IIRC, since the Thai DCA's last full ICAO-inspection, plenty of time for standards to have slipped, now they've got to be seen to taking all the proper steps to restore their regulation of all local airlines.

Thai aviation has been growing rapidly during that decade, perhaps the resources needed for monitoring & inspections to keep pace with that growth were skimped, one can only speculate as to why that might happen ?

[trogers]

These people simply are not proactive, are they? Always "react" after the lights are turned on.

A behaviour commonly found in a rice farm - the buffalo basking by the pool until dragged by the nose...

[bboy]

Forward plan of action:

- check cabin crews flight training certificates as many bought on kao san road

- nobody gets fired, that is unthinkable. A jolly old reshuffle should suffice

- employ farang consultants to adhere to safety standards

-take all credit for meeting standards

- issue a statement speaking on behalf of ICAO & all countries that banned Thai airliners: "it was all a big misunderstanding, Thailand's safety standards were already very good but other countries didn't realise at the time."

[Orac]

I remember back when Suvarnabhumi opened that there was a problem with the The DCA issuing an aerodrome licence as required by ICAO initially. At the time the govt argued that it wasn't too important as the ICAO rules hadn't been written into Thai law and Don Muang had never had one at all.

I wonder if this audit covers airports as well as airlines as that could have even more implications than just issues with Thai registered airlines.

[alant]

It looks like Thailand simply ignored the pesky foreigners who have no idea how Thailand's air transport work being different to everywhere in the world because the officials can be b*****

I would not put all the blame on Thailand, they seem to have been told of the problems some 10 years ago and did jack and the ICAO, they did jack it seems as well.

[alant]

I remember back when Suvarnabhumi opened that there was a problem with the The DCA issuing an aerodrome licence as required by ICAO initially. At the time the govt argued that it wasn't too important as the ICAO rules hadn't been written into Thai law and Don Muang had never had one at all.

I wonder if this audit covers airports as well as airlines as that could have even more implications than just issues with Thai registered airlines.

yep, another "doesn't apply to Thailand

[ChrisY1]

Sounds like an impossible task to live up to higher standard in a short period. Perhaps Thailand just isn't good enough. Then they should hire people from other countriers that have proven they can.

I think you'll find in a report yesterday, Prayuth mentioned that they will likely employ foriegners if local cannot fill positions......

[GinBoy2]

I'm actually shocked there hasn't been an outpouring of bile at the press for actually reporting this....it could cost millions of lost revenue don't ya know, are you gonna pay??

Then again it wasn't the FAA, if it was TVF would be awash with vitriol telling those evil 'americans to stop meddling lol

Edited March 31, 2015 by GinBoy2

[bangon04]

So the PM will have to invoke his ' immense powers ' under Art 44 to bring the Dept of Civil Aviation into line and get its sub-standard procedures sorted out.

Says so much about LoS doesn't it ?

"Earlier in the day the minister had said Thailand was warned about its aviation management after an earlier ICAO audit in 2005. "(They) asked us to improve our systems. I understand we have to improve urgently.""

well at least we are reassured that Minister Prajin now understands his job a little bit after it was explained to him again....

[NanLaew]

These people simply are not proactive, are they? Always "react" after the lights are turned on.

"These people..."

For best effect, does one need to be looking down one's nose as one types this?

[bangon04]

How big is the Thai rug?

sweep under rug.JPG

big enough to hide the elephant in the room?

[robertthebruce]

Its not just ''AVIATION SAFETY'' Thailand needs to re-vamp, ''SAFETY'' in General at all levels is LACKING..

[MobileContent]

It is just a matter of time before Europe and North America will ban all flights from Thai airlines to their regions.

They did it with the Indonesian airlines several years back and even Garuda was banned for a while for flying into Europe but what stuns me is that the Asian airports are starting it.

Edited March 31, 2015 by MobileContent

[Fiddlesticks]

So, let's see,

• Urgent attention to aviation safety - check
• World hub for highway deaths - check
• Deplorable condition of train tracks with safety concerns - check
• Transport via water buffalo still considered safest mode - check

Wow! Thailand sounds like a great great place to send your family and friends for a fun-filled vacation!

Ample travel insurance is highly recommended.