The US civil aviation regulator, the FAA, has given the Thai Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) 65 days to rectify and respond to a number of deficiencies that were identified during a recent audit of the regulator. The audit by the FAA was promoted by the recent Significant Safety Concern (SSC) raised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) during an audit of the DCA. In the event that the DCA fails to resolve the identified deficiencies, the FAA will most likely move to downgrade Thailand from a ‘Category 1’ country to a ‘Category 2’ country as a part of its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme. This downgrade will consequently prohibit all Thai-based carriers from commencing new operations to the U.S.

Tunisian based carrier, Syphax Airlines, officially suspended operations on the 31st of July 2015. The airline noted that this suspension would only be temporary while it works to reconfigure its operations. Despite this, the airline has not yet established a prospective recommencement date. The airline had recently withdrawn an additional aircraft from its fleet and only operated a fleet of two aircraft. Additionally, the deteriorating security situation within Tunisia has also likely impacted on the airline’s operations.

India’s civil aviation regulator, the DGCA, has officially removed Air India’s Air Safety Chief after it was discovered that the airline had not sufficiently maintained and stored its flight data records. DGCA regulations require Indian-based airlines to store all flight data records for a minimum of 6 months. However, a recent investigation by the DGCA identified that these records had not been adequately recorded and stored by Air India’s safety department and that much of the data was not stored at all. The DGCA has subsequently moved to have the Flight Safety Chief stood down from his position as a consequence of the non-compliance with the prescribed regulations.