Thai Airways International has obtained
a third country operator certificate from
the European Union , effective on Dec 15,
and secured its flights to 11 destinations
there.
THAI president Charamporn Jotikasthira said officials of the European Aviation
Safety Agency had checked the safety
standard of the national airline on Nov 12 and 13 and thatit had already categorisedTHAI as a third country operator.
The certification for THAI took effect on
Dec 15 and means the airline can operateflights to countries in the EU for good,
he said.
The EU started to issue TCO certification
to non-EU airlines this year and any
non-EUairlines without the TCO status
could not operate flights to the EU from
November next year on wards,
Mr Charampom said.
He assured that THAI had maintained its high standard and implemented its SafetyBeyond Compliance project in May
this year.
The project was aimed at upgrading its
safety standards to the highest
international leve land that these were
also based on the standard of EASA,
he said.