The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) announced it has returned Air Operator Certificates (AOCs) to two private jet firms at a formal ceremony at the Transport Ministry on Wednesday.
The two companies, AC Aviation Co Ltd and VIP Jets Ltd -- both of which operate Bangkok-based international private jet services -- were given back their AOCs last month and this month, respectively.
The certificates are issued by a country's main civil aviation authority and allow aircraft operators to use aircraft for commercial purposes.
The operators, along with many others, lost their certificates after Thailand was red flagged by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the United Nations' aviation watchdog, over safety concerns in June 2015.
The red flag was lifted last October, prompting a re-certification process for all passenger operators in the country to resume flight operations.
According to the CAAT, AOCs have been returned to 16 Thai airlines to-date, including AC Aviation and VIP Jets.
CAAT director Chula Sukmanop said yesterday three operators currently remain without AOCs -- all of which are private jet companies. They are Siam Land Flying Co, Ltd, Advance Aviation Co, Ltd and Jet Asia Airways Co, Ltd.
They should receive their AOCs within the next month, he said.
The CAAT had prioritised re-certifying large commercial airlines before smaller private firms. Prior to an ICAO inspection last September, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha invoked Section 44 to ban all air operators without AOCs from flying from Sep 1 last year to Jan 31.
According to Luzi Matzig (also known as Lersan Misitsakul), CEO of VIP Jets Ltd, private jets were only allowed to fly domestically until they received their AOCs.
"We incurred a 15-million-baht loss during this period, and we believe other larger airlines would have lost more," he said. "About 80% of our income comes from international flights."
Mr Matzig said VIP Jets is regularly involved in medical evacuation flights.
"Most of these patients come from neighboring countries such as Myanmar or Cambodia," he said.
"It is a good thing to finally be able to conduct international flights again, but there are certainly things that need to be adjusted, in terms of regulations for private jets."
According to Mr Matzig, large, commercial airlines and private jet companies must currently follow the same guidelines, including staff training programmes and a stipulated 5% annual increase in pilot numbers per airline.
He said these regulations cannot apply to private jets, saying VIP Jets only has one plane and three pilots.