KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 21Thai Smile Airways, a subsidiary company of Thai Airways, has been found to be conducting and providing unauthorised self-ground handling services, including maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) service, to other airlines at Tribhuvan International Airport. TIA takes steps in a bid to provide better services Rana claims Qatar Airways Golf title Following the revelation, TIA has halted the ground handling services being carried out by Thai Smile Airways under the direction of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and has temporarily suspended the self-ground handling service authorised to Thai Airways. Thai Airways, one of the first passenger jet service providers to connect Nepal with the rest of the world, made its first flight to Kathmandu on 4 December 1968 and provided one flight per week before expanding its service to one flight per day in 1977.

With a few skilled manpower and technical equipment with Nepal Airlines at the time, the CAAN had authorised the airline company to carry out self-ground handling service from TIA.Thai Airways made its last flight to Nepal on 21 March 2020, before formally suspending its flights to the country temporarily two days later citing the COV- ID-19 pandemic.The CAAN has allowed selfground handling services at TIA to Thai Airways and Air India and created provisions for other airline companies to receive permission for self-ground handling services in case they conduct 35 flights a week.

However, Thai Smile Airways had not fulfilled the set criteria and was not permitted to use the self-ground handling service provided to Thai Airways despite being its sister company when it had initially sought permission from the regulator after starting flight operations to and from Kathmandu on 1 June 2022.According to Gyanendra Bhul, information officer for CAAN, Thai Airways had kept its ground handling equipment at TIA despite not conducting operations since 2020.

"On 1 June 2022, Thai Smile started conducting seven flights a week to Nepal under the same frequency and flight number previously used by Thai Airways after paying the due arrears of its parent company.

The company, as a subsidiary of Thai Airways, had then requested CAAN to use the self-ground handling service authorised to its parent company, but it was rejected, citing the criteria of the Ground Handling Service Directive 2016, among other reasons.

However, it recently came to light that Thai Smile Airways had been providing self-ground handling services, as well as MRO services, to other airline carriers as well.

For that reason, we have directed TIA to halt such activities," he said.He said only commercial handling agencies and companies were authorised to provide MRO services and must have an identification permit from the civil aviation authority of their respective country to provide such service, while the service-receiving airline company also needed clearance from their respective aviation regulator to be able to receive the service.Bhul said Thai Airways had also provided MRO services to other airlines, including Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines, while it was operating flights to and from Nepal.

Although the service has been suspended, Thai Airways will be allowed to continue its self-ground handling service after resuming regular operations in the country."The issue came to light just recently after aircraft engineers of Thai Airways were found to be working on an aircraft of another airline company.

TIA has been directed to halt all ground services being carried out by Thai Smile Airways.

We believe that this may also be correlated to the recent case of TIA General Manager Prem Nath Thakur, who was suspended after an audio clip of conversation between Thakur and a representative of Thai Smile Airways was made public," he said.A version of this article appears in the print on February 21, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.

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