Hiring of dozens of foreign aviation experts to be sped up

A FAST-TRACK recruitment of foreign aviation experts will be completed within a month so they can help Thai-registered aircraft meet international standards.

The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) and other related agencies were ordered to outsource the work to experts since there are around 400 aircraft that need to be inspected.

Deputy Premier Prawit Wongsuwan issued the order yesterday after an emergency meeting with aviation safety officials following the US Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) downgrading of Thailand’s status to Category 2 from Category 1 on Tuesday.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is slated to release the results of its investigation on Thailand’s aviation industry on December 15.

The Cabinet earlier approved the plan to quickly hire foreign inspectors due to a domestic shortage of aviation safety specialists.

The DCA said Thailand needed around 86 foreign inspectors to cover the inspection work.

The FAA concluded that there remained significant deficiencies in the country’s aviation safety system.

Mario Hardy, chief executive officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, said Thailand should take serious action to resolve the safety concerns as the situation would hurt the country’s image.

“If EASA makes the same decision like that of the US’s FAA, Thailand will face more difficulty,” he added.

He said passengers were concerned about safety and were more careful when selecting airlines to travel on. 

Ittirit Kinglake, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said the tourism industry was preparing to hold discussions in preparation for the worst-case scenario – EASA also downgrading Thailand.

“Thailand is entering into the high season for tourist arrivals. If our national airline has a problem we will work with other carriers to continue the business,” Ittirit said.

The Ministry of Transport said airlines’ re-certification procedures, part of the overhaul of the aviation safety system, consisted of five steps.

First is a pre-application process, while the second step is to seek formal application approval.

The third step is to undergo technical testing, while the fourth step is to carry out a “demonstration”. If approved, the applicant airline will be re-certified.

Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said all 41 airlines registered in Thailand had submitted their documents to the DCA and had passed the second step.

In the third step, the 28 airlines operating in and out of Thailand are required to undergo testing. These airlines are expected to receive re-certification in August.

The department will then invite the 13 airlines operating domestic routes to join the testing procedure.

In June, the ICAO red-flagged Thailand’s aviation industry, saying it had 33 significant safety problems.