The Thai government is likely to delay until next year, a follow up audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) the newly formed Thai Civil Aviation Authority (ThCAA) has said.
The government says it requires more time to adequately train ThCAA inspectors to ICAO specifications an official statement said.
In June last year, the ICAO formally instated a Significant Safety Concern (SSC) against Thailand after the country's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) failed to adequately address regulatory oversight shortcomings identified during a Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) inspection in January 2015.
At the time, Thailand reportedly only satisfied 21 out the 100 USOAP criteria with problem areas said to have included: personnel licensing and training, airworthiness assessment and certification, airline operations oversight and the granting of Air Operator Certificates (AOC) to airlines.
As part of its remedies, Bangkok said it would establish two new organisations - the ThCAA and the Air Transport Department - to oversee the Thailand's aviation sector and its airports and infrastructure respectively. In addition, existing aviation laws have been tightened while new regulations regarding the issuance of Air Operator Certificates (AOC) and Air Service Licences (ASL), as well the transportation of hazardous materials, are to be drafted.
In a show of strength, the ThCAA recently grounded three errant Thai carriers - Asian Air (Thailand) (Bangkok Don Mueang), Intira Airlines (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi), and City Airways (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) - for violating various Thai civil aviation regulations pertaining to airline finances as well as operational airworthiness.
