Passenger numbers on Thai flights set to soar
Aerothai wants reform to airspace routing
NAN: Aeronautical Radio of Thailand (Aerothai) has urged aviation authorities to kick-start immediate reforms in airspace routing and management, after international bodies estimated the country will rack up a maximum of 3 million flights per year in the next 18 years.
This will rank Thailand 10th among the largest players in the global aviation market in 20 years’ time, says Aerothai president Sarinee Angsusingha, citing an International Air Transport Association (Iata) air passenger forecast released last October.
According to Ms Sarinee, the country currently handles a combined 1 million domestic and international flights per year.
“Even with our 1 million flights per year, we still face persistent delays, with confusions in overlapping airspace routing being one of the preventable causes behind the delays,” Ms Sarinee said.
“Countries like the United Kingdom are currently able to accommodate about 2 million flights yearly, despite having less airspace than us.”
According to her, Thai airspace management currently involves passageways used by Aerothai and the Royal Thai Air Force, many of which regularly overlap.
“This is a matter which can be fixed with better management, starting with our air passageways,” she added.
She said reviewing the passageways would allow for the country to service more flights.
While we have seen vast developments in the country’s airports, it is not only about improvements on the ground, Ms Sarinee said, adding that these developments will not be utilised to their highest potential if our air passageways remain under-regulated.
Aerothai, a state enterprise, is the main regulator of air traffic in Thailand.
The authority projects a 6-7% increase in annual flights this year, after last year’s expected 8% growth resulted in 5%, Ms Sarinee said.
In terms of passengers, Iata’s report also forecast 7.8 billion passengers to fly in 2036, almost double the number the authority projects this year, at 4 billion.
The report projected that Thailand and Turkey would enter the world’s top 10 in the aviation market in about 20 years’ time, while France and Italy will fall to 11th and 12th place, respectively.
Meanwhile, Indonesia will overtake the United Kingdom as the 4th largest aviation market behind China, United States and India. Others among the top 10 are Japan, Spain and Germany.
Ms Sarinee said Aerothai has commissioned the help of British authorities to conduct studies to come up with milestones the authority must reach to successfully handle 3 million flights by 2036.
She added the studies will be submitted to Aerothai by mid-year.
“We are also drafting up plans to improve our staff training programmes, which normally take three to five years on average per person, depending on the programme,” she said.
“Such reforms would involve packing more courses into a shorter amount of time, in order to decrease the duration of the overall programmes.”
Aerothai currently offers training programmes in the fields of air traffic control, calibration and financial administration, among others.
Ms Sarinee said a request to reform Thailand’s airspace routing had recently been approved by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. According to her, the matter is set to be discussed in a cabinet meeting “within the coming months”.