Thailand's cabinet approved amendments to the civil aviation laws last month which will help the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) to get the country's aviation sector compliant with international safety requirements, reports AIN Online.
The amended Civil Aviation Act is part of Thailand's strategy to address thirty-three shortcomings identified by the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) and have its Serious Safety Concern lifted.
The CAAT has introduced a suite of other measures to improve the country's safety rating, including the recertification of all commercial operators using amended legislation and laws. Bangkok Airways (PG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) recently completed the process, and another twenty-two airlines are slated to shortly do so. In the meantime, CAAT has suspended the issuance of new AOCs due to a shortage of suitably qualified inspectors. The new amendments will allow a committee to issue new certificates, rather than the Transport Minister solely, which may ease the bottleneck.
Speaking with AIN, CAAT director general Dr Chula Sukmanop said that an important step will be to empower CAAT to issue regulations without having to go through parliament. "It’s going to help us speed up the implementation of ICAO standards."
Another measure to be implemented is the freeing up of foreign-ownership rules. Apparently, there is to be no limit placed on the portion of an airline that can be foreign-owned, or its share structure, a move which is hoped will stimulate foreign investment in Thai airlines.
