JetAsia suspends flights from Thailand to Japan

[webfact]

JetAsia suspends flights to Japan
SUCHAT SRITAMA
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- JETASIA AIRWAYS has temporarily suspended flights to Japan in the wake of aviation safety tests being conducted by a team of United States Federal Aviation Administration officials in Thailand this week, with the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) set to receive the test results this week and have another 65 days to fix any problems.

JetAsia Airways' flights to Japan was suspended on Thursday and will remain suspended until tomorrow.

In a statement, the airline said it was more concerned about safety than business. Effected passengers were allowed to change flights or get their money back.

Earlier, JetAsia launched a very attractive promotion - a Bt3,000 ticket to Japan - and received a large number of passengers.

The airline was founded in December, 2009, and obtained its Air Operator Certificate from the DCA in October, 2010.

With the increasing demand for quality service providers in the Asia Pacific region, it was established to serve charter flights and ad-hoc services.

Earlier, Thai AirAsia X said it would temporarily suspend services from Bangkok to Sapporo in Japan from August 1 onwards due to a downgrade of Thailand's aviation safety rating.

However, Malaysia's AirAsia X will continue to fly to Tokyo and Osaka in Japan and Seoul in South Korea. Japan and South Korea are among the top destinations for Thai travellers.

The FAA team is in Bangkok until Friday to review the country's progress in improving its air safety to comply with international aviation standards.

The team is focusing on the country's ability, and not the ability of individual air carriers, to adhere to those standards.

It will examine airline licenses, certification documents, and regulations until tomorrow and will provide the initial results and advisories to the department on Thursday and Friday.

The final test phase is set to be announced in mid-September.

Prajin Juntong, the Minister of Transport, said he was not sure if Thailand would pass the tests.

According to Prajin, certifying airline licenses is one of the major issues that led the country to have air-safety problems and it will take time to solve it.

"We are ready to explain to the FAA the problem and how we are going to deal with it and solve that problem," he said.

Currently, the DCA and a support team from Singapore are revising the licences of 28 airlines registered in Thailand.

All 28 carriers are slated to be re-certified by the end of October and if all the airlines are able to meet international standards, specifically the International Civil Aviation Organisation's significant safety concerns, the ICAO should remove its red flag against Thailand's aviation industry.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/JetAsia-suspends-flights-to-Japan-30264375.html


-- The Nation 2015-07-14

[noitom]

Safety is their business as they proved by pulling THai flights.

[englishoak]

Month or so to go ? yup about time to start panicing

[quandow]

So, are they going to hide the bad planes until the FAA goes away?

[thesetat2013]

So, are they going to hide the bad planes until the FAA goes away?

Thats what i read into this. They pull service even if they lose money buying their passengers tickets on other airlines but only stop their service during the FAA inspection.

I also like how the director claims that any problems the FAA finds will have a solution and plan ready to give as a response. Do thais really think foreigners believe plans and solutions if they dont physically see them implemented?

[winstonc]

im leaving sunday...yaaay thats my lot here but i told the wife lufthansa or b.a. none of that homegrown rubbish for me..i sort of value my life..even if others dont..

[Ulic]

Then it's a good thing I am flying Philippines Airlines tomorrow (Manila-Tokyo)

[siam2007]

It comes to no surprise that this Airline has pulled the plug as they have reason for.

Their average fleet age is 27.5 years and some of their aircraft are 33 years old.

combine that with a miserable maintenance and you know what to expect from those IATA-inspections ;-)

nobody needs those flying coffins