Senior transport officials to discuss Thai aviation crisis with ICAO, Germany and Australia

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ICAO
Senior transport officials to discuss aviation crisis with ICAO, Germany and Australia
Suchat Sritama
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- In a bid to ease the country's current aviation woes, the Transport Ministry is seeking help from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and preparing a team to visit Germany and Australia, while South Korea decided yesterday to temporarily allow Jet Asia Airways to operate charter flights to the country.

Transport Minister ACM Prajin Juntong yesterday said his team - led by the deputy minister and the Civil Aviation Department director-general - was scheduled to meet with the ICAO president in Canada from April 20-22 to discuss the situation concerning aviation safety in Thailand and the impact of air restrictions and bans imposed by several countries in Asia.

"The ministry is now drawing up an aviation action plan, which will be completed this week and will be sent to the ICAO, airlines and aviation authorities in the countries we plan to visit," he said.

The meeting with the head of the ICAO is expected to help ease restrictions and a ban on Asian air travel due to significant safety concerns in Japan and South Korea.

The ban resulted in five airlines registered in Thailand being unable to operate charter flights, extend new routes or increase flight frequencies into Japan and South Korea during the summer season, which ends in September.

Prajin said South Korea's Office of Civil Aviation had, however, given temporary permission to Jet Asia Airways to operate charter flights to the country, effective through April 15.

The temporary permission is not extended to Asia Atlantic Airlines and NokScoot, although the two carriers have asked to be allowed to change their charter-flight service to scheduled operations, he added.

"The three airlines had planned a number of charter flights to South Korea throughout April, carrying 22,119 passengers," said the minister.

As to scheduled flights by Thai Airways International and Thai AirAsia X, the South Korean authorities said they may relax the rules if the carriers planned to increase the number of flights.

During talks with South Korea last week, the ministry asked the country to reconsider its position and grant special permission for Nokscoot and Thai AirAsia X to operate charter flights into Korea, as the two Thai-based carriers had shared foreign ownership - with Singaporean and Malaysian businesses, respectively.

The transport minister said his team was scheduled to meet with the aviation authorities in China yesterday and today, as well as visiting Germany and Australia after the Songkran Festival for similar discussions, despite those countries not having issued restrictions such as those imposed by Japan.

Meanwhile, Tony Tyler, director-general and chief executive officer of the International Air Travel Association (IATA), said it was not looking good for Southeast Asian travellers as two of the region's biggest countries - Indonesia and Thailand - were in the spotlight for safety and other lapses.

"To ensure safe flights and comfort, and to realise the full benefits of plans to liberalise the region's air travel market, Indonesia and Thailand must fix problems that have been highlighted by global bodies," said an IATA expert.

As part of plans for Asean to operate as a single aviation market, which Singapore has been strongly pushing for, all 10 member nations, except for the Philippines, now allow neighbouring carriers to fly without any restrictions to their capital cities.

Almost all restrictions have also been lifted for flights to other cities.

Alan Tan, professor of aviation law at the National University of Singapore, said the problems of inadequate infrastructure - airports, runways, crewing, safety and air traffic control - affected many countries in the region.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Senior-transport-officials-to-discuss-aviation-cri-30257602.html


-- The Nation 2015-04-08

[kotsak]

Man made crisis.. Stick to the rules and do proper maintenance you morons and you wouldn't have a "crisis"..

[Ricardo]

Perhaps the discussions should include a request for skilled-assistance, in training and expanding the Thai DCA, so that it reaches internationally-required standards once again ?

[Toknarok]

Germany? In view of the fact that the recent tragic plance crash of a German plane in France and the discrepancies regarding safety issues after that event, I'm wondering if that's such a good choice.

[maddermax]

Hope they get this sorted out soon as it is also affecting domestic hobby pilots, particularly the ultralight planes and pilots as most of the DCA staff are having to undergo training.

[Pinot]

Perhaps the discussions should include a request for skilled-assistance, in training and expanding the Thai DCA, so that it reaches internationally-required standards once again ?

You think? The problem has been around for a long time and it's only now other countries are calling the Thais on it. It's really disgraceful. Wait till the next time a Thai plane goes down to see

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Junket trips to Canada, Australia and Germany now for "the team", eh???

Those boys in the Ministry of Transport and CAA sure have been working hard lately... All that pressure and bad publicity.

Nothing like a Song Kran season reason to do some international traveling.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The meeting with the head of the ICAO is expected to help ease restrictions and a ban on Asian air travel due to significant safety concerns in Japan and South Korea.

Do you ever notice how these kinds of articles never actually say or explain what the real issue/problem is in these kinds of situations?

The article makes it sound like Thailand's having a problem because the authorities in Japan and South Korea, for some unexplained reason, have issues with Thai aviation safety.

NO!!! The reason is Thailand essentially flunked an international review of its civil aviation regulatory body, which found that that government agency isn't meeting international standards for its work. But somehow, the OP article and others like it seem to avoid making any mention of that or what the actual findings were.

[Fullstop]

Man made crisis.. Stick to the rules and do proper maintenance you morons and you wouldn't have a "crisis"..

What a massive and well deserved loss of face for Thailand. Wake up LOS.

[steveyinasia]

Once again the money is overruling the initial decisions of Japan and Korea, this is disgraceful. Nothing has been done to ratify the problems since the report from the international body so what has changed from the initial ban.......nothing except the cry from Thailand that their all important greed will suffer. Fix the problems.

[Bangkok Barry]

First Japan and Korea ban the airlines/flights. Then Japan changes its mind, and now Korea too is backing down. So, what's changed? Nothing has been solved, the same problems that caused the ban still exist. Either there is a problem, a danger, or there isn't. Which is it.

[Jiggo]

So what have the Thai Airports Auth been spending there 700 baht tax collected from every departing passenger on then....not safety issues

[dick turpin]

First Japan and Korea ban the airlines/flights. Then Japan changes its mind, and now Korea too is backing down. So, what's changed? Nothing has been solved, the same problems that caused the ban still exist. Either there is a problem, a danger, or there isn't. Which is it.

Maybe if we get big rail contalact, we change our minds....

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

First Japan and Korea ban the airlines/flights. Then Japan changes its mind, and now Korea too is backing down. So, what's changed? Nothing has been solved, the same problems that caused the ban still exist. Either there is a problem, a danger, or there isn't. Which is it.

On this particular subject, I think you have to read carefully the details of what's being reported, or not reported, by the Thai media on this... And... look to non-Thai media for a better view of what's going on.

For example, the WSJ had this item reported out of South Korea yesterday:

The [Korean] ministry said in a statement Nokscoot, a joint venture between Thailand’s Nok Air and Singapore’s Scoot, on Tuesday retracted its application for flights between Thailand and South Korea. The withdrawal comes in response to the ministry’s request last month to stop selling air tickets for the Seoul-Bangkok route after the ICAO revelation.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korea-bans-new-charter-flights-from-thailand-1428391069

As for the Thai charter airlines, it seems that the Koreans gave a one-week reprieve to Jet Asia Airways for the April 7-15 period. But still denied permission to two other charter carriers, Asia Atlantic and Asian Air.

And Reuters had this broader explanation yesterday re NokScoot, saying they had canceled ALL flights to Japan and South Korea through the end of April. It also says the two commercial carriers were only given permission to increase their flights to Korea for a short holiday period -- not indefinitely as some of the Thai news reports seemed to suggest.

NokScoot cancels charter flights to Japan, South Korea until April 27

* Nearly 150,000 passengers affected by Japan, Korea bans

* South Korea permits Jet Asia, scheduled flights for short term (Adds minister comments about South Korea's ban)

By Manunphattr Dhanananphorn

BANGKOK, April 7 (Reuters) - Thai long-haul low-cost carrier NokScoot said on Tuesday it has cancelled all charter flights to Japan and South Korea until April 27, pending a licence re-evaluation by the authorities.

NokScoot, a joint venture between Nok Airlines PCL and a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Ltd, will have to refund more than 20,000 passengers booked on flights during the period, Chairman Patee Sarasin told Reuters.

Japan and South Korea imposed a ban in late March on charter and newly scheduled flights by Thai-registered airlines due to safety concerns highlighted by an international audit.

NokScoot is one of the Thailand-registered airlines hit by the flight bans which are expected to affect nearly 150,000 passengers seeking to travel to Japan and South Korea, popular destinations for Thai travellers, during Thai New Year holidays.

South Korea's authorities banned three airlines -- Jet Asia Airways, Asia Atlantic Airlines and NokScoot -- to fly charter flights to the country in late March, which affected about 22,000 passengers in April, Thai officials said.

However, South Korea has allowed Jet Asia to fly charter flights during April 7-15, and scheduled carriers such as Thai Airways International and Thai AirAsiaX, are permitted to increase flights during April 10-19, the peak season for Thai travellers.

"This is temporary measure to help ease the impact on passengers," Thai Transport Minister Air Chief Marshall Prajin Junthong told a news conference on the result of negotiations with the South Korean authorities last weekend.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/07/nokscoot-cancellation-idUSL3N0X41LZ20150407

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The transport minister said his team was scheduled to meet with the aviation authorities in China yesterday and today, as well as visiting Germany and Australia after the Songkran Festival for similar discussions...

So why trips to China, Germany and Australia???

The BKK Post at the bottom of an article the other day appears to have provided the answer. While the Thai government is promising it will fix the problems and hopefully comply with ICAO standards, the Post reported that it also has a fall-back plan if it fails to meet ICAO standards.

That fall-back plan supposedly involves negotiating so-called Memorandums of Cooperation with other individual countries for aviation standards. And the Post said Thailand has already begun discussions with, you guessed it, China, Australia, Germany and others, including France and South Korea.

It's going to be interesting to see how all this unfolds, and whether ICAO will stick to its guns amidst Thailand's maneuvering.

[Jim walker]

I suppose if it was a pilot problem that would be easy to replace them with ex bus drivers like number 39 they seem to manage any problems and if there was a document discrepancy regarding the plane they could always run away

[Nbarch]

Germany? In view of the fact that the recent tragic plance crash of a German plane in France and the discrepancies regarding safety issues after that event, I'm wondering if that's such a good choice.

The visit to Germany is most likely to talk to Lufthansa-Technik, a well-respected aviation engineering company which maintains aircraft in many parts of the world. They could certainly sort out the engineering side of Thailand’s charter airlines; the personnel side is another matter.

The Germanwings incident was a tragic event, I think the sixth known pilot suicide whilst at the controls.

[newnative]

Step 1. Cancel this time-wasting, useless junket.

Step 2. Hire the most experienced NON THAI aviation safety manager you can find and put him or her in immediate charge with FULL AUTHORITY to do whatever is necessary to get Thailand in compliance with international air safety standards--including the authority to hire and, more importantly, fire regardless of how 'connected' someone is.

[Chao Lao Beach]

While Orient Thai is operating, The Thai DCA will never be in the clear.

[MobileContent]

The Airlines in question have no proven track records.

Asia Atlantic Airlines is in part owned by the Baiyoke Group which runs mainly 1-3 star hotels in Thailand.

Jet Asia Airways might pulled some strings as their partner in Japan is HIS one of the largest tour operator in Japan.

BTW Jet Asia Airways have farang management at most levels.

[Chicog]

The minutes of the meeting will no doubt start:

"Pomplem? Why you say pomplem?".

[stoffel45]

As this disgusting saga - where Thai appear to be playing face games with the lives of their passengers and crews continues more and more people are turning from using THAI because it is apparently unsafe.

The whole of the THAI Board should be sacked and prosecuted for negligence.

As an emergency measure bring in a proper Airline Maintenance system - from Europe, from the USA - where SAFETY standards are always - FIRST.

[minikev]

I'm wondering how will they get there. It's a long journey on a boat.

[bangon04]

Germany? In view of the fact that the recent tragic plance crash of a German plane in France and the discrepancies regarding safety issues after that event, I'm wondering if that's such a good choice.

The visit to Germany is most likely to talk to Lufthansa-Technik, a well-respected aviation engineering company which maintains aircraft in many parts of the world. They could certainly sort out the engineering side of Thailand’s charter airlines; the personnel side is another matter.

The Germanwings incident was a tragic event, I think the sixth known pilot suicide whilst at the controls.

and bringing the ICAO criticisms into the full public spotlight in Germany may yet backfire. Germany is currently experiencing a public desire for full transparency and full compliance.

[khundon]

Thai airlines

Sack the f*****g lot and put the rest on night shift.

[zydeco]

Going to Germany? Reminds me of that old language commercial. It opens with a shot of a German Coast Guard radio operator getting an emergency message from a ship at sea. "Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is the Sea Lion. We are sinking! We are sinking!" Then, the reply: "This is the German Coast Guard. What are you zinking about?"