The Root Cause of Civil Aviation Crisis in Thailand

Abstract

As to ensure a consistent global standard for aviation safety and the civil aviation authorities of The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) member states, ICAO had audited the Thai Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) as part of its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) during 19-30 January 2015. Following the audit, ICAO downgraded Thai’s aviation safety ranking and listed Thailand as a “Red Flag” country on 18 June 2015. This indicates that the Thailand is not providing sufficient safety oversight to ensure the effective implementation of applicable ICAO Standards. After the ICAO audit, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) audited Thai aviation safety in July 2015 and found that Thailand did not meet international standards. Finally, the last safety audit of individual Thai airlines was carried out by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). These incidents stimulated member states to lessen their confidences on the safety of Thai-registered airlines. And in the long run, it may affect the country's economy if the crisis is not corrected in a timely manner. To correct the crisis properly and sustainably, root causes of the problems must be identified. This study used Cause and Effect Diagram as a tool to analyze the root causes. The data was gathered from related documents, and from interviewing key-informants. The result indicated 3 root causes of the problems that brought about the “Red Flag” crisis, they are: (1) government’s focus on civil aviation; (2) legislation process; (3) drawbacks identified by ICAO; (4) organizational structure; (5) human resources management; (6) corporate leadership; and (7) corporate information system.