Thailand downgraded by FAA over concerns about safety issues

With the Thai civil aviation authority failing to tackle a number of major flaws in its commercial aviation standards, the FAA has been left with no option but to downgrade Thailand’s Department of Civil Aviation from Category 1 to Category 2. As a consequence, Thai airlines are now prohibited from either launching or expanding networks to the United States, either directly or as a code-share partner
Currently no Thai carriers fly to the United States, but the restriction could still harm the image of the country’s massive tourist industry and affect domestic as well as international travel to other destinations. Bangkok alone was expected to deal with 30 million passengers this year.
A number of concerns had previously been aired, but it was back in July this year the FAA finally gave Thailand 65 days to address a number of critical omissions in safety standards, which subsequently failed to materialize. As a consequence, and despite not going in to specifics, The FAA confirmed that its category 2 rating will be applied to an aviation authority that “is deficient in one or more areas, such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping, or inspection procedures”. However it was during the January audit the FAA discovered Thailand had a shortfall of technical officers and was experiencing certification problems for transporting hazardous goods.
With South Korea, Japan and China having relaxed previous restrictions on Thai-based airlines from flying charters and new routes because of safety worries, there are now concerns these could be re-imposed according to Patee Sarasin, chairman of low-cost carrier Nok Airlines. However Charamporn Jotikasthira, chairman of Thai Airways, was more confident, stating that “There is no commercial or customer impact as Thai had already ceased operations to its only US destination of Los Angeles.”