Re highlight: What deadline? China probe finds safety problems in five airlines

Somchai Piputwat, director-general of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), said the airlines were Orient Thai, NokScoot, Jet Asia, City Airways and R Airlines.

He said the airlines were found to have several problems related to flight information and documentation, aircraft maintenance, and staff training.

A team from the Civil Aviation Administration of China arrived in Bangkok this week to check safety standards of the five airlines and found that documents were incomplete. 

“The Chinese authorities found minor problems at the five airlines, but they still have time to fix the problems,” Somchai said. 

According to a Chinese report, some of the aircraft were aged over 14 years, and some maintenance work was out of schedule. The Chinese officials also discovered that the number of trained staff with the airlines was insufficient. The DCA, however, insisted that the airlines could address the problems before the deadline.

The five airlines’ failure to meet China’s safety standards is likely to arouse more concern about Thailand’s civil-aviation adequacy. Airlines are expected to undergo safety checks by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by July, when the DCA completes a new aviation-safety manual.

The head of the department said the FAA might impose tougher standards for the next round of examinations.

Earlier, Transport Minister Prajin Juntong set a time frame to solve safety problems following an investigation by the International Civil Aviation Organisation found that charter flights operating from Thailand had failed to comply with international safety standards. As a result, Japan and South Korea banned charter flights from Thailand in late March but allowed affected airlines to resume operations from mid- April. 

The ministry aimed to complete its safety manual and new regulations by October 1. The work progress will be reported to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on May 22.