Thailand Regains Category 1 FAA Rating: Will We See Nonstop US Flights?

There’s some exciting news for Thailand, and it presents some new opportunities for airlines from the country.

FAA upgrades Thailand from Category 2 to Category 1

In 2015, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded Thailand’s aviation safety rating from Category 1 to Category 2. This came after FAA inspectors conducted a review of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT), and identified several areas of non-compliance with minimum safety standards.

To be clear, this didn’t mean that the FAA deemed Thai airlines to be unsafe, but rather just meant that the country wasn’t properly overseeing air carriers in accordance with minimum international safety standards. This had significant implications (which I’ll get into below), but there’s now a positive update. After a decade, Thailand has just been upgraded to a Category 1 rating.

For those wondering why the FAA even has any authority in this regard, it’s because the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has published standards that airlines have to meet, and this is evaluated under the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program.

Using these international standards, the FAA assesses the civil aviation authorities of all countries with air carriers that have applied to fly to the United States, or that participate in codeshare agreements with airlines from the United States.

What are the implications of this update?

With Thailand once again having a Category 1 rating from the FAA, air carriers from Thailand can launch service to the United States, and can take part in reciprocal codeshare agreements with airlines from the United States, which hasn’t otherwise been possible in the past decade.

The most exciting implication here is that airlines from Thailand can now launch nonstop service to the United States. The last time we saw nonstop service between the two countries was back in 2015, when Thai Airways used to fly from Bangkok (BKK) to both Los Angeles (LAX) and New York (JFK) using Airbus A340-500s.

These ultra long haul flights ended up being canceled because they lost money (before Thailand’s rating was downgraded), and we haven’t seen any nonstop flights between the two countries since then.

There has been lots of talk of Thai Airways possibly resuming flights to the United States once the Category 1 rating is earned, so will we now see that happen? It’s anyone’s guess how this plays out. Practically speaking:

• The Boeing 787-9 has much better economics than the Airbus A340-500 (which used to fly to the US), and flights between Bangkok and the West Coast should be within range
• That being said, Thai Airways currently has an aircraft shortage, though the airline has 45 Boeing 787-9s on order, which are expected to be delivered as of 2027
• While I think it would logically make sense to wait until then to launch the service, I could also see the excitement of this development causing the government to request these flights be launched sooner

Honestly, maybe this isn’t the worst time for Thai Airways to launch these flights, given that the most recent season of The White Lotus took place in Thailand, so the interest is certainly there…

We’ve certainly seen airlines in North America capitalize on increased demand for Thailand. Air Canada operates a seasonal route to Bangkok out of Vancouver (YVR), while United will be launching a flight to Bangkok out of Hong Kong (HKG).

Bottom line

Roughly a decade after being downgraded, Thailand has regained its Category 1 status with the FAA. This means that airlines from Thailand can launch service to the United States, and also codeshare with US airlines.

It has been a decade since we’ve seen regularly scheduled nonstop flights between the two countries. Thai Airways has expressed interesting in operating these flights, so only time will tell how this develops.

What do you make of Thailand regaining Category 1 status with the FAA, and do you think we’ll see new flights launched?