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THAI Smile and Thai Lion Air Get Re-Issued AOCs
21st Jul 2017
THAI Smile and Thai Lion Air received their air operator licenses (AOCs) this Thursday, making them sixth and seventh Thailand carrier to be re-certified by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT). Before these two airlines, CAAT re-issued AOCs to Bangkok Airways, Thai AirAsia, Thai AirAsia X, Thai Airways International (THAI), NokScoot and Nok Air.
The now eight re-certified Thai airlines represent a total of 84% of the country’s commercial airline fleet. According to Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requires 75% in order to lift the red flag imposed on Thai civil aviation sector in 2015.
In addition, the sheer size of flights operated by the airlines re-certified so far is around 92% of all Thai-registered carriers combined, including both domestic and international flights. The eight carriers, however, amount to as much as 97% of all transported passengers by all airlines registered in the kingdom.
Shula Sukmanop, Director General of the CAAT is positive that these numbers will convince ICAO to lift its red flag status by the end of this year.
13 more airlines now await to be re-certified and to receive their AOCs from CAAT. The first two (representing 9th and 10th overall) should be a private jet charter Mjets and NewGen Airways, a charter carrier mostly focused on the Chinese market.
In any case, Thailand civil aviation sector has already met the basic requisite set upon it by ICAO. This bodes well for the kingdom, especially since an ICAO audit is drawing near. On 30th June, CAAT officially submitted an application for the audit and this will take place less than two months from now in September. The audit itself will take about 2 to 3 months.
ICAO “red flagged” Thailand and airlines registered there in 2015 due to significant safety concerns. As a part of it, Thai-registered carriers are banned from operating internationally in most countries that follow ICAO rules (China, for instance is one of the countries that doesn’t so many Thai carriers turned their focus on this market in the last year and this one). In addition, Thai airlines were also banned from changing aircraft types or increasing frequency on current flights.
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