New | Looming US probe into air safety could hurt Thailand tourism revival
A looming US investigation into Thai air safety could lead to more aviation authorities imposing sanctions on the country's aviation sector and dent a revival of its hospitality industry this year that has been led by a surge in Chinese tourists.
In the latest episode stoking fear in Thai air safety, five small Thai airlines were found to have problems with flight documents, aircraft maintenance and staff in an audit by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the National News Bureau of Thailand said, citing Thailand's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).
Among the five named by the report, low-cost start-up NokScoot, a joint venture between Singapore Airlines' low-cost subsidiary Scoot and Thailand's Nok Air, was originally planning on launching this week by starting scheduled flights into Nanjing, China.
NokScoot denied the report, saying that its CAAC audit was scheduled for tomorrow. But it confirmed its operation into China had to be postponed and that its launch flight would now be Bangkok-Singapore next week. The CAAC was not available for comment.
Brendan Sobie, the chief analyst at the Centre for Aviation, said that given the timing of its market entry, NokScoot was the airline most affected by the sanctions imposed on Thai carriers by key Asian aviation authorities after the United Nations' aviation body ICAO published findings at the end of March that Thailand's DCA was not in compliance with international safety standards.
Japan and South Korea, known for being quick to block airlines from countries that fail ICAO audits, slapped bans on Thai charter flights and froze new flight applications from Thai carriers, while mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore have taken a case-by-case approach.
An audit by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in July is now the most imminent test for the Thai DCA.
An FAA downgrade could also deal a blow to the Thai tourism industry. Citi analyst Michael Beer said in a report that visits from China, Thailand's largest source of tourists, had doubled to two million in the first quarter of this year compared to last, while total visits had risen 23.5 per cent.
