Carriers face rule for 20% Thai pilots

Carriers face rule for 20% Thai pilots

The Transport Ministry will soon require at least 20% of pilots hired by commercial airlines to be Thai nationals, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith says.

The requirement will soon be part of the criteria used to assess whether to issue or renew operating licences for both Thai- and foreign-registered airlines.

The quota will be enforced as soon as the requirement is formalised, although it is still unclear when this will be.

"The minimum number of Thai pilots will increase after the requirement is implemented," Mr Arkhom said.

The move aims to encourage commercial airlines to assist government efforts to train more Thai pilots to meet surging demand in the rapidly expanding aviation industry.

The Civil Aviation Training Centre (CATC) — the organisation authorised by the state to train pilots — currently produces 100 Thai pilots annually, which cannot keep up with the rapid growth in the aviation business, according to the Transport Ministry.

For several airlines, the number of Thai pilots employed is less than 15% of the pilot workforce, despite the airlines having operated in Thailand for more than 10 years, said Mr Arkhom.

The centre, which has a 400-million baht annual budget, said it cannot increase enrolment due to budget constraints and limited training equipment.

The CATC is now studying an aviation personnel development plan to assess how it can expand and to predict how many Thai-national pilots need to be trained up each year to meet demand.

The CATC will also launch measures to better protect the rights of airline customers against shoddy airline services, added Mr Arkhom, who explained this includes ensuring airlines have enough aircraft in their fleets. "There will be stricter rules. You cannot go into the airline business with just one plane, for example," Mr Arkhom said.

In the past, package tours were sold at cheap prices to customers who were later stranded at airports because there were not enough aircraft in service.

In addition, some airlines had their operating licences suspended but were still selling air tickets, leading to a number of incidents where passengers were stranded at airports for days on their return trips.

Meanwhile, Mr Arkhom said the government is now ready for the forthcoming aviation safety inspection by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which will take place from Monday to Wednesday next week.

"Authorities have resolved the problems outlined by the International Civil Aviation Organisation," he said.

The US aviation regulator will conduct the inspection following its July audit which found a shortage of qualified staff for airline air safety inspections. The FAA gave Thailand 65 days to address the problems to avoid a potential flight ban to the US for Thai-registered carriers.

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