ICAO lists Thai new airport's "high risk" areas before opening

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has questioned the readiness of Thailand's new Suvarnabhumi airport for its official opening slated on Sept. 28, citing "high risk" areas in a report sent to Thai aviation authority, media in Bangkok said Friday.

The ICAO report, based on its information collected and observations made between June and early July, identifies 29 high- risk areas, or about one-third of the 93 items on its checklist, while 43 others are rated as medium-risk and the rest low-risk, according to Thai newspaper Bangkok Post, which quoted the ICAO report sent to Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT), an agency under the Transport Ministry overseeing international airports, including Suvarnabhumi.

A high-risk item, as the ICAO defines, is one which "will most probably not be possible to resolve" before the opening date and could delay the opening plan.

Among the high-risk items identified are the "airfield visual aides" including taxiway, apron and airside road signs, lights and markings.

Failure to address them could lead to unsafe ground operations which "may contribute to an aircraft incident or accident", the report says.

Suvarnabhumi is being run under a temporary certificate issued by the Aviation Department of Thailand. It needs a permanent one approved by the ICAO for the Sept. 28 official opening, aviation experts say.

The ICAO's report was leaked to press on Thursday, two days ahead of first domestic commercial flights tests, where six domestic airlines will service 20 local flights in and out of the new international airport in Bang Phli district of Samut Prakan province, 35 km south to Bangkok.

Suvarnabhumi airport general manager Somchai Sawasdeepon Thursday confirmed the readiness for Saturday's tests.

"Everything is ready (for the test flights)," Somchai said.

Somchai and Aviation Department chief Chaisak Angkasuwan said the ICAO report was an internal document that turned out every month for airport officials to check on the progress of the project and alert them to emergency issues.

Both were confident that all problems identified by ICAO, the United Nations-affiliated agency based in Montreal, Canada, which works for civil aviation safety and sustainable development, would be fixed in time for the official opening.

The airport agency also hired an independent firm to double- check the readiness of all systems, said Somchai.

Almost all domestic and international airlines operating in Bangkok will move from the old Don Muang International Airport from Sept. 28 to Suvarnabhumi, a 155-billion-baht (4.8 billion U.S. dollars) project, which has been a controversial topic between the caretaker government and the opposition in Thailand.

Source: Xinhua