Countries Ban New Flights from Thailand Re Safety Concerns

[Up2U]

Article 44 to be used to fix aviation woes.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politic ... 57100.html

[fountainhall]

Part of that Nation report is pretty scary -

He said the ICAO had audited the Department of Civil Aviation for years and had found the country had about 300,000 flights a year regulated by just 12 officers.

But he said the number of flights had increased to 600,000 annually, but there were still only 12 officers.

When he asked the departmentтАЩs director general what had happened, he said he was told the department had proposed to restructure its organisation, amend its laws and increase its manpower and budget, but the process did not happen because of ignorance.

Ignorance? This is just so typically Thai! There is all the experience the Thais need spread around the region. How about engaging professionally qualified consultants to provide a road map?

Sorry, not the Thai way!!

[Up2U]

BP editorial: heed flight ban lessons.

http://bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/ ... ban-lesson

[Up2U]

........ two more months.....

http://bangkokpost.com/news/transport/5 ... two-months

[fountainhall]

This was almost bound to be part of the diplomacy. The Songkran holiday flights of tens of thousands of Thais or more can now go ahead. Wonder how many panicked and rebooked more expensively on other airlines, though?

[Surfcrest]

If it is basically an oversight issue, then I hope the Thai authorities will sort out those remaining 79 issues a.s.a.p - certainly before TG is denied access to LAX and European air space. That would surely be one of the ultimate tourism disasters.

Tourism disaster for Thai Airways and Thailand, but not necessarily for tourism in Thailand. If Thai Airways doesn't survive, surely another company will step in and try to may a go of that market. I'm not so sure Thai even understands who their customer base is and what part of the market share the competition holds, which in that business is fatal. I personally avoid Star Alliance whenever I can, I find the problems between one carrier and another are similar within the Alliance or at least they have been for me and I deal with them on the Cargo side of the business as well.

I think Thai's problems are business related. There's a lot of competition in the International market, especially with the long haul routes from Asia. Thailand's direct routes have faltered from the political uncertainty over the past few years with tourists adding Thailand on to their itinerary with other destinations...rather than making it the primary one. When the demand isn't strong for the airline, the focus is on to cut costs and this is where many carriers cut themselves out of the market.

Surfcrest

[aot871]

I don't understand why it is new flights only, if the airlines are not safe , what about the current flights, but its the same with a lot of things in Thailand, there are no independent checkers

[Up2U]

Thai safety concerns extend to EU.

http://bangkokpost.com/news/transport/5 ... tend-to-eu

[Up2U]

Cloudy skies for cash strapped DCA.

http://bangkokpost.com/news/special-rep ... rapped-dca

[fountainhall]

I don't understand why it is new flights only, if the airlines are not safe , what about the current flights

I also don't understand this part. My assumption is that a message is being sent. Get your act together and finally follow the rules. After all, this is not a new problem. Successive governments have done nothing about it for 10 years or more. At least it is now being tackled with a degree of priority.

If Thai Airways doesn't survive, surely another company will step in and try to may a go of that market. I'm not so sure Thai even understands who their customer base is and what part of the market share the competition holds, which in that business is fatal . . . I think Thai's problems are business related. There's a lot of competition in the International market, especially with the long haul routes from Asia. Thailand's direct routes have faltered from the political uncertainty over the past few years with tourists adding Thailand on to their itinerary with other destinations...rather than making it the primary one. When the demand isn't strong for the airline, the focus is on to cut costs and this is where many carriers cut themselves out of the market.

I also believe TG's problems relate to its business model. Thanks to corruption and the meddling of different governments, one serious problem it has is too many different types of aircraft. Its maintenance and servicing costs must therefore be quite a bit higher than carriers like Cathay and Singapore (although allowance has to be made for the lower currency base). TG has 9 compared to Cathay with just 4 - of which its 747-400s and A340s are being phased out. It is therefore left with only 777s and A330s to which will soon be added the new A350s.

Then its more recent decision to set up the subsidiary airline Thai Smile seems not to have worked. It already has a 39% stake in Nok Air which itself has established a joint venture with Singapore's Scoot to form Nok Scoot of which Nok owns 51%. The formation of Nok made sense as long as it carried passengers from TG's international to domestic networks. Nok's move to DMK rather scuppered that rationale. Thai Smile is mid-way between a budget and a full-service carrier and so it has taken up some of the domestic connections at BKK. You would expect it also to take over some of TGтАЩs short-haul low volume routes. Yet 3 years after going into operation its only overseas destination is Macao тАУ also served by Thai Air Asia with 4 daily flights! The rest of Thai SmileтАЩs flights on its 20 aircraft are charter operations.

Like all full service carriers, the profit for TG has to come from its selection of routes and those who buy seats in the front of its planes. Routes are certainly going to be axed. The front end, though, remains a huge problem for TG. When most other carriers offer a superior product and a cheaper price, many passengers who would previously have flown non-stop are now quite happy with one-stop flights. I know this is common elsewhere in the world (in June I fly Berlin/Chicago on BA at a price that is a great deal lower than London/Chicago on BA!) and it is true here. Why fly Thai biz to LHR at Bt. 156,680 return when the Gulf Airlines тАУ even Cathay Pacific тАУ offer fares ex BKK that are a great deal cheaper? Heck, even BAтАЩs non-stop biz price is one third less than TGтАЩs at just over Bt. 100,000!