Japan appears poised to grant a reprieve from its ban on new flights into the country by Thai-registered airlines but has stopped short of saying if the restrictions will be removed for good.
Tokyo's latest indication came as major Thai operators such as Thai Airways International, Thai AirAsia (TAA), Thai AirAsia X (TAAX), NokScoot and Nok Air vowed to pool their resources to help Thai civil aviation authorities restore flagging safety standards.
A delegation from the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) is expected to arrive in Bangkok either Wednesday or Thursday to present a memorandum of understanding outlining conditions for Thailand's Civil Aviation Department to accept and sign to qualify for the respite.
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Thai-registered long-haul low-cost carriers TAAX and NokScoot, the most affected parties, have reportedly secured preliminary agreements from the JCAB.
Confident that a "positive reaction" from the JCAB is forthcoming, TAAX chief executive Nadda Buranasiri Tuesday said the launch of the daily scheduled Bangkok-Sapporo flight - due to take off on May 1 but halted by the JCAB's restrictions - is now back on track.
But the reprieve for TAAX will last only 60 days, from May 1 to June 30, Mr Nadda said.
NokScoot, a joint venture of Thailand's Nok Air and Singapore's Scoot, expects to receive further leniency from the JCAB for its charter flights from Bangkok to Tokyo (Narita), Osaka and Sapporo.
The airline has already won a partial respite from the JCAB and the Thai Civil Aviation Department to use Singapore-flagged Scoot B777-200 jets to ferry passengers booked on some charter flights to those Japanese cities from Bangkok.
While Mr Nadda declined on Tuesday to say how TAAX would proceed to get its booked passengers from Bangkok to Sapporo, industry experts say it is likely to adopt similar tactics.
That means TAAX would use aircraft of its sister airline, Malaysia-based AirAsia X, to operate Bangkok-Sapporo flights during the two-month period.
While there were doubts whether NokScoot and TAAX could legally do so under given traffic rights between Thailand and Japan, Prof Alan Tan, an expert in international aviation law at the National University of Singapore, told the Bangkok Post that the JCAB could approve such flights on a temporary basis.
Under normal circumstances, a Singapore-registered Scoot aeroplane cannot carry NokScoot passengers directly between Bangkok and Tokyo.
To remove doubts, NokScoot can fly those passengers from Bangkok to Singapore first, on either NokScoot or Scoot flights, and then Scoot can fly them from Singapore to Japan, Prof Tan said.
TAAX's Mr Nadda said he was confident that JCAB and Thai department officials would be able to work out a "positive remedy" to the flight restrictions in the coming days, but he did not elaborate.
Japan was the first foreign country to penalise Thai airlines after the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) identified "significant safety concerns" in a March 20 notification.
South Korea and China discreetly followed suit as the ICAO, under the umbrella of the UN, stood on the verge of downgrading Thailand from Category 1 to Category 2.
The Civil Aviation Department scored poorly on a recent ICAO audit.
The designation of significant safety concerns for Thailand came after a "corrective action plan" submitted by the department on March 2 largely failed to address shortcomings raised earlier by the ICAO.
TAA chief executive Tassapon Bijleveld said major Thai airlines would unite to help the department restore global confidence in the country's aviation industry.
"We're prepared to make financial contributions and allow our technical experts to work for the department to address issues raised by the ICAO," Mr Tassapon told reporters.
A NokScoot team and department officials will travel to South Korea this week to persuade civil aviation authorities not to shut the door completely on Thai airlines operating new flights to South Korea.
NokScoot's first flight from Bangkok to Incheon airport, South Korea's gateway hub, is scheduled for May 10 but remains on hold.