COMMENTARY

Airline accords should be reviewed

Boonsong Kositchotethana

Our civil aviation authorities have seemed to be much more generous than their counterparts in other countries when it comes to the handing-out of fifth freedom rights to foreign carriers. It is a known fact that it is relatively easy for foreign airlines to get the fifth freedom _ the right to carry passengers from their home airports to Thailand and then pick up extra passengers at our ports for a flight to a third country _ from the Department of Civil Aviation.

Many of the 98 bilateral air service accords Thailand have struck with foreign countries provide fifth freedom benefits which allow well-heeled foreign carriers to take advantage of air traffic business from vulnerable Thai airlines.

Major Middle Eastern airlines have capitalised on the rights by picking up passengers in Bangkok on flights from several third countries to their home airports where passengers are then fed into their global networks.

For instance, Emirates, the fledgling cash-rich airline based in Dubai, has beaten Thai Airways International (THAI) to draw away business on the so-called Kangaroo route, from Australia, via Bangkok. In another case, Singapore Airlines, the archrival of THAI, has enjoyed the rights to pick up passengers from Bangkok on its way from Singapore to Japan, at the loss of the Thai flag carrier.

Similarly, Taiwan's Eva Air and China Airlines have also received extra passenger loads from Bangkok on their way from Taiwan to Rome and Amsterdam. No, these foreign carriers are not doing anything wrong in that regard because the air service agreements simply allow them to reap the benefits.

A key question which has lingered in the minds of members of the Thai aviation industry is why our authorities were so ready to allow foreign carriers to tap the fifth freedom benefits which in the first place should be reserved for Thai airlines.

Why such eagerness to embrace deregulation without thoroughly considering whether Thai airlines would really lose out in opening our skies to foreign carriers?

Many countries protect their fifth freedom and other aviation rights dearly as national sovereignty or assets, a view which may not be profoundly subscribed to by our authorities.

The United States, self-proclaimed land of the free, does not allow a foreign carrier to fly domestic routes, nor permit foreign pilots to fly their commercial jets.

There seems to have been a lack of, or inadequate, consultation between the Thai authorities and designated carriers in the process of negotiating for the bilateral air service agreements especially in the aspect involving fifth freedom rights.

Such consultations are normal practice adopted by other governments to ensure an equitable sharing of benefits derived from the air pacts, if not serving the best interest of their respective countries.

Some existing air service agreements, particularly those damaging Thai carriers such as those with the United Arab Emirates, may need to be reviewed with possible amendments or additional clauses to balance the interests for the two signatory countries.

For example, there should be some restrictions on the frequencies or the number of passengers they could pick up from Bangkok under the fifth freedom rights beyond the existing levels. But those prerequisites should be sensible and not merely used to provide excessive protection to Thai airlines in such a way as to discourage them from providing good services to the public.

Signed air pacts which do not create benefits for Thailand should be dropped while new agreements should only be cautiously initiated when the benefits for Thailand become clear.

The air service agreements should be established in line with the network and marketing strategies of Thai airlines along with the kingdom's tourism marketing plan, not from the one-dimensional perspective of an aviation regulator.

Existing and future bilateral and multi-lateral air agreements should serve to enhance air traffic through Thailand, thus contributing to making Bangkok an aviation hub in this region.

Boonsong Kositchotethana is Deputy Assignment Editor (Business), Bangkok Post.

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Wednesday April 11, 2007