THAI To Do A No Show In Los Angeles

5th Aug 2015

Starting October 2015, THAI air carriers won't be showing up in LA as the airline opted to forego its Bangkok-Incheon-Los Angeles route.

The move wasn't in anticipation of a possible ruling from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restricting THAI flights in the US. According to the airline, it is more of an economic decision.

Industry analysts believe that the move is an attempt at mitigating risks brought on by uncertainties.

There is no denying that US FAA may still decide to ban Thai-registered air carriers from flying into the country's airspace although this isn't necessarily a consequence of demotion in airline ranking from level one to level two.

A country receiving a downgrade from the FAA is restricted from adding more flight destinations to the US. It is also prevented from changing the type of aircraft currently used on existing flight destinations to the country.

Aside from these, existing codeshare agreement between US and Thai air carriers will cease to be operative. Such is the case if Thailand is the operating carrier.

In mid-July, a team from FAA arrived in Thailand to conduct checks on how the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) implements safety procedures. Although FAA findings were unsatisfactory, it gave the DCA more than two months to remedy the flaws uncovered after the audit.

In its report, the FAA indicated that some DCA personnel proved to be incompetent as regards implementing safety checks on airlines. The same findings were also part of the UN International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) earlier report when it audited the DCA.

The FAA team warned DCA that existing procedures for safety checks are outdated. Additionally, personnel who should be monitoring work progress were found to be insufficient.

Industry analysts are not expecting DCA to remedy the flaws within the given time period. However, the same group feels that THAI's recent move to cut its LA flights starting October will help cushion the impact of an FAA downgrade which may be just around the corner.

Presently, there are no other Thai-registered airlines flying to LA other than THAI.

Meanwhile, lawyer Alan Polivnick, an expert in dispute resolution in the aviation and shipping industry opined that being banned from expanding flight services in another country could be burdensome for any airline. He cited Indonesia's recent restriction on some of Thailand's air carriers and the damage that it has done, as one classic example.

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