ICAO chief admires Thai success in solving aviation problems

The head of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said that he admires Thailand’s progress in addressing and solving its aviation challenges and pledged to assist the Kingdom in becoming a regional center for conducting aviation inspections.

ICAO President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu made the comments after meeting with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.  Aliu was in Thailand last week to attend the ICAO Global Aviation Cooperation Symposium held in on the southern island resort of Phuket.

Thailand has set a goal of becoming a regional aviation hub, and aviation and aerospace are among the 10 industries the government is promoting as part of Thailand 4.0, the 20-year national development strategy to transition to a higher-technology economy.

THAI Airways International is partnering with Airbus to build and run an aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul center near Bangkok to inspect and serve aircraft from around the world.

Alius’ comments represent a strong turnaround for Thailand. Since the volume of air traffic had exploded in 2000, Thailand continued to practice the same level of aviation regulator throughout the years. Later in 2017, the ICAO recognized the serious efforts Thailand had made to address and rectify its issues to train and provide an adequate number of inspectors to handle the increasing volume of flights.

Aliu expressed admiration for what Thailand had achieved and noted that the Kingdom is one of the very first ICAO members to demonstrate an improvement in aviation security and facilitation in line with international standards.

Aliu said despite increasing its number of inspectors, however, Thailand still needs more inspectors. He pledged that his organization would lend its expertise and work with Thai authorities to help train more inspectors. The collaboration would help Thailand achieve its goal of becoming a regional center for aviation inspectors, he said.

Photo courtesy of www.caat.or.th