How Thailand Came out of the Shadows of ICAO

How Thailand came out of the shadows of ICAO In 2015, the Kingdom of With over 20% of GDP depending on travel Thailand was issued a and tourism (expected to rise to 31.7% of Country Profile GDP by 2027), it was crucial for Thailand to Significant Safety Concern address the international safety concerns Name of the country: (SSC) by the International Civil and improve the existing safety oversight, to Kingdom of Thailand Aviation Organisation (ICAO) enhance Thailand’s aviation reputation. Size of the country: over the inadequate safety 513,120 km2 With determination to reverse the status, in oversight of its registered 2016 The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand Population: international carriers. ICAO (CAAT) appointed CAA International (CAAi) 68,860,000 to help strengthen CAAT’s aviation safety identified 572 findings related Number of oversight and compliance with ICAO. CAAT international airports: 11 to the ICAO Protocol Questions requested assistance with recertification of (PQs). 33 of these findings were the registered international air operators and Number of directly related to the SSC. help with preparation for a future ICAO audit. international carriers: 20 Afterwards, the US aviation Number of international Challenges 1 regulator, the Federal Aviation flights in 2016: 402,721 Agency, downgraded Thailand In May 2016, the CAAi technical team Contribution of Travel and Tourism 2 to Category II status, restricting visited CAAT for an initial project briefing. to GDP in 2016: 20.6% Both teams worked together to identify Number of passengers travelled to any Thai carriers from flying inadequate procedures and processes, and and from UK airports to Thailand fragmented regulations with gaps against into the United States. More in 2016: 790,149 countries followed suit, adding ICAO Annexes. CAAT was aware that by not having suitable regulations in place, further restrictions flying into any recertification work to ICAO standards Japan, South Korea and China. could have been rendered invalid. In addition, CAAT recognised it had an “CAAi has played a very big part Outcomes and benefits for insufficient number of qualified inspectors in our success from the very Thailand and CAAT and other technical resources to tackle beginning. The system they this issue, which needed addressing prior In September 2017, ICAO conducted suggested for the recertification to proceeding with aircraft operations an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission recertification. The low number of suitable process and their assistance (ICVM) audit on Thailand which determined staff would have meant that CAAT could in its implementation paved that sufficient progress had been made not adequately perform the recertification the ways for our completion to remove the Significant Safety Concern programme, which would have hindered of the actions to resolve the (also known as “red flag”). Removing this their overall sustainability. red flag has given Thai registered airlines significant safety concern, the opportunity to continue operating Our Solution leading to the lifting of international routes and expand their the red flag.” network into other regions. This was an Working with CAAT, CAAi started by enormous achievement, considering that the drafting new procedures and checklists, Dr. Chula Sukmanop, Thai economy heavily relies on the income addressing the regulation gaps in the areas Director General of CAA Thailand from travel and tourism. of operations, cabin safety, dangerous goods and airworthiness. CAAi then Once the solid foundations for the In successfully addressing the protocol identified a sufficient number of suitably recertification were in place, CAAi began the questions for the ICVM, Thailand’s effective qualified inspectors who would work recertification programme with CAAT. Each implementation for operations increased alongside CAAi’s technical experts during the AOC would undergo a document inspection, from 10.22% to 38.69%. In the area of inspections, to provide on-the-job training for an onsite inspection and a flight inspection. airworthiness, effective implementation was them, in turn ensuring future sustainability Many of the AOC’s documents were not raised from 61.98% to 76.03%. for CAAT. initially compliant with ICAO regulations. Consequently, CAAi had to deploy extra By October 2017, CAAi helped CAAT Another challenge CAAi faced was the resources liaising with CAAT and the recertify eleven carriers, and is management of the AOC oversight. CAAi operators to resolve the issues. continuing to assist in the recertification introduced an IT solution called Centrik to of the remaining nine carriers. support this process and the recertification Prior to the ICAO ICVM audit where ICAO work. This meant the project team could would assess CAAT’s progress on the put all the checklists on the Centrik corrective actions, CAAi supported CAAT system, record the compliances and non- on their responses to the PQs that ICAO 1 http://aot.listedcompany.com/transport.html compliances from the inspections, and in required to be satisfactorily addressed 2 www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact- turn raise and track the appropriate findings. before the ICVM audit. research/countries-2017/thailand2017.pdf Key Achievements • Effective implementation for • ICAO removed the Significant Safety operations increased from Concern (also known as “Red Flag”) 10.22% to 38.69% • Eleven carriers recertified; MJets, • Airworthiness, effective K-Mile, Thai Smile, Thai Lion Air, Nok implementation raised from Air, Bangkok Airways, Air Asia, Thai 61.98% to 76.03% Airways, AirAsia X, New Gen Airways and Thai AirAsia UK Civil Aviation Authority | International Group Aviation House Gatwick Airport South West Sussex RH6 0YR United Kingdom T +44 (0) 330 0224401 F +44 (0) 1293 573992 E [email protected] www.caainternational.com Together for better aviation.

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