Aviation ban a blessing in disguise

Turning a blind eye to safety is a disaster in the making. And that disaster need not necessarily mean human casualties. In the case of Thailand’s aviation industry, the sirens are sounding after the decisions by Japan and South Korea to ban new flights by Thai carriers. The precautionary measure comes in response to Thailand’s failed effort to catch up with international standards. However, the really alarming point is not the decisions by the two Asian countries, but that the problems have been known about for more than a decade.
That Japan and South Korea are refusing new flights from Thailand has huge financial ramifications. The short-term impact is on the airlines, including the national carrier Thai Airways International, whose extra flights to the two countries during the long Songkran holidays are now grounded. Yet the long-term effect could be far worse, with the country’s Bt400-billion aviation industry at risk of losing competitiveness. The international perception that Thailand’s safety standards are below par is expected to rebound on the country’s trillion-baht tourism industry, not to mention its ambitious plans to become an aviation hub in Southeast Asia.
Perhaps we should be thanking Japan and South Korea. This country’s failure to meet standards demanded by the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s audit might not have caught the attention of Thai authorities had it not caused financial losses. Shockingly, Thailand’s aviation regulator has been aware of all of the concerns raised by the ICAO for more than a decade. This time the resulting ban, which made international headlines, has finally prompted action from Thai authorities, with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha pledging to use his near-absolute power to resolve the problems speedily. And the seriousness of those problems can no longer be papered over.
The ICAO’s alert on safety measures has exposed structural weakness in Thailand’s Civil Aviation Department, which somehow escaped the eyes of previous administrations.
The country’s aviation regulator employs just 12 officials to monitor the 600,000 flights that take off every year from Thai soil. There are also fears that this meagre workforce has not kept pace with advances in aviation technology.
A former high-ranking aviation official has pointed to an insufficient budget, which has caused staff incompetence. Previous governments have ignored the problems, failing to foresee they would eventually bring a ban against Thai carriers expanding their operations overseas.
Now, the deteriorating safety situation has reached a critical point. It doesn’t help that the Civil Aviation Department is accused of harbouring a conflict of interests in its dual role as the country’s regulator and the operator of airports. This suggests that the root of Thailand’s aviation problems goes deeper than the department, spreading into the whole bureaucratic system. Why did the country’s administration let things get so bad in the first place, and why has nobody looked into the matter?
The ban following the ICAO report may be a blessing in disguise. As Thailand struggles to comply with international aviation regulations, we can take this opportunity to examine our entire bureaucratic system. Massive budgets are allocated to various government agencies every year, but the money often does not end up where it’s needed most. Whether that omission is down to complacency, incompetence, corruption or a combination of all three is what we need to figure out.
This government and its successor must get to the root of bureaucratic inefficiency if the country is to head off other disasters that may be waiting for us on the road ahead. Thai aviation now faces a tough time, but at least this should prompt serious remedial action. Who knows how many other problems have been swept under the rug?