The EU commission has black listed 100 airlines from entering European airspace or land in Europe due to poor safety regulations and bad maintainance. Amongst them: Phuket Airlines.

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I didn't think they were even flying anymore. Their planes have been sitting mothballed on a corner of the tarmac at Don Muang for quite a while now.

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It was about a year ago that there was a bad incident. Passengers saw fuel spewing from a wing and panicked and rioted until they agreed not to take off and the passengers transferred to another airline. Wide publicity in the UK.

The British Aviation authority inspected their planes and found a lot of minor repairs required and suspended their landing rights. They said that there was nothing dangerous but too many minor items to be ignored. Seemingly Phuket did not do anything and soo after that France and The Netherlands banned them.

The Thai Government then got involved and were feeling bad about the National loss of face. They gave them a hard time and I think they ran out of customers and funds about the same time. Currently thye seem to only fly Bangkok Ranong and Bangkok Yangon.

It's a bit sad as it had geat potential and offered the best Europe-Bangkok rates around. A friend used then and thought they were OK for the money.

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"12TH MAY 2005 BBC NEWS Bangkok airport : Rebelling passengers had set off from Bangkok

A Thai airline has been banned from flying to the UK after an incident in which passengers stopped a plane taking off, believing there was a fuel leak. Phuket Air did not wish to comment on having its operating licences suspended in the UK and the Netherlands. But the Department for Transport said the ban was due to the "number and severity" of safety breaches found in Civil Aviation Authority inspections. The airline still has a plane impounded at Gatwick due to unpaid landing bills.

'Confidence' Phuket Air did not wish to comment on the licence suspension, but a UK spokeswoman did say the company had chosen to stop flights coming into the UK from 22 April because of a sharp fall in bookings following the tsunami.
Hundreds of British tourists stopped a Phuket Air plane taking off from Sharjah Airport in UAE at the beginning of April because they feared fuel was leaking from a wing. They were let off the Bangkok-Gatwick plane, but the airline said ground staff had overfilled a fuel tank and there was no danger to passengers. A second flight sent to pick up the tourists was also delayed at UAE for nearly 11 hours because of further technical trouble, before arriving safely in the UK. Passengers had refused to fly on the first plane after some passengers screamed as "gallons" of fuel "spewed" from the plane's wing, witnesses said. At the time Phuket Air threatened legal action, saying no-one was in danger and that some passengers had caused panic and affray.

Safety standards: A Department for Transport spokesman said a recent inspection by the Civil Aviation Authority on a Phuket Air plane found that the aircraft failed to reach safety standards. The CAA found a faulty collision avoidance system, damaged gearbox and defective emergency lights. The spokesman added: "The faults on the aircraft were only fairly minor and there was nothing to cause major alarm. "But when you added all the faults together they didn't reach the safety standards required."
BAA also confirmed it has been holding a Phuket Air plane for the last month and it is unlikely to leave until the airline has paid its landing duties."

As far as I remember Phuket Air only flew to London and Amsterdam and ceased flights shortly after this incident. Banning them nearly a year later seem a bit late in the day but I suppose necessary as they are still operating.

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They didn't offer the best fares, they offered the lowest fares.
Too low, obviously: their pilots weren't qualified. (At least some of them.) Maintenance was substandard and before the infamous incident they had big problems already.

I'd like to fly cheap too, but rather pay more and arrive safe.

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Apparently world aviation safety authorities know about unsafe airlines but are delaying publishing a list naming them until 2008!

The European Union went ahead with theirs last week.Maybe of interest to those who use multi-sector flights.Some African and Central Asian eg Kazakhstan airways feature.


http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/...ll_list_en.pdf

see also airsafe.com and airlinequality.com.

check out learn how to swim sites too.

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