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Airlines May Be Y2K Risky By David Strummer, Newsbytes. November 17, 1999

While most major domestic airlines will have no major Year 2000 problems on Jan. 1, 2000, a significant number of smaller charter and cargo carriers could experience technical glitches, according to a report released today by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA report rated 2,822 US carriers and more than 200 charter companies on their efforts to prepare their navigational and ground- based systems for the coming new year, when programming glitches could recognize the year 2000 as 1900, and consequently malfunction or shut down. The report awarded the highest of three ratings to more than 90 percent of the nation's major carriers - including the industry's top ten airlines - indicating that the FAA could find no Year 2000 issues that would prevent their compliance with FAA safety regulations.

The agency awarded the second-highest rating to 209 of those carriers, which offer both scheduled and non-scheduled passenger and cargo services. While a majority of these airlines do not use computer systems that would come under the scrutiny of federal safety standards, the FAA is still investigating whether they might have outstanding compliance issues, such as proper pilot certification or regular plane maintenance.

The FAA bestowed its poorest rating upon 35 non-scheduled passenger carriers, marking the airlines as being at a significant risk of running into Year 2000-related problems.

The report made no mention, however, of concerns raised recently by Senate Year 2000 Committee Ranking Democrat Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. in regard to an issue he believes many airlines may have overlooked: code-sharing. Code sharing is a common practice in the airline industry, in which two airlines agree to jointly market a flight if it happens to involve areas where they don't directly compete with one another. In a typical code-sharing agreement, airlines will post each others' flights using their own flight codes, and sell tickets for connecting flights as if they were their own. Dodd voiced his concerns last week in a two-page letter to the FAA, but acknowledged there was little the agency could do to force international compliance.

"Unfortunately, the FAA lacks the mandate to compel foreign carriers operating abroad to share information on their Y2K readiness status," Dodd wrote in the letter.

The FAA Website is http://www.faa.gov .

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Officials To Avoid Y2K Travel

By Pongsak Bai-ngern and Choosak Jirasakunthai, The Nation.

November 17, 1999

Senior Thai government officials will be instructed to avoid traveling abroad between Dec. 29 and Jan. 5 and to standby in case of unexpected Y2K computer problems affecting agencies under their supervision.

The measure was one of the 10 proposed by the government committee for Y2K readiness and approved by the Council of Economic Ministers at its meeting yesterday, government spokesman Akrapol Sorasuchart said.

Deputy government spokesman Pan Puengsujarit stressed that the directive was not caused by fears the so-called millennium bug could lead to plane crashes.

He said the move called for high-ranking officials such as permanent secretaries of ministries to be available or to provide contact numbers so that they can be reached immediately for decisions.

Thai Airways International, however, is reconsidering its previous decision to conduct flights straddling midnight on Dec. 31 and may now cancel its New Year's Eve schedule, officials said yesterday.

"'We do not want to be careless," said Communications Minister Suthep Thaugsuban. "We're thinking that if the passengers aren't confident, why should we persist with the New Year's flights."

Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankhiri, as chairman of the coordination committee for solutions to Y2K problems, yesterday supported the suspension of Thai Airways' New Year flights.

He said many other airlines were considering cancelling flights during the period, adding that he had learned from a Website on the Internet that only half of the 1,000-plus airports around the world are Y2K-compliant. "Half of the world's airports are not ready so I don't think it's a good idea to fly," he said.

Trairong also said that most of the 31 government agencies that might be at risk from Y2K-related problems were prepared "almost 100 per cent."

However, the agencies that were still lagging behind were the University Affairs Ministry, which has many hospitals under its control, the Agriculture Ministry, particularly the Cooperatives Promotion Department, and the Finance Ministry, particularly the Treasury Department and Government Lottery Office.

Thai Airways director Aran Apichari said customer demand for flights on Dec. 31 was about 30 percent lower than the same period last year.

"Thai Airways flights around Asia will have no computer problem as they will not operate during the midnight period but long-haul flights from Europe and Australia are of concern," he said.

The airline will decide early next month whether to cancel late-night flights scheduled for Dec. 31 and the early morning of Jan. 1.

However, some Thai domestic airlines like Bangkok Airways and PB Air confirmed that they will be operating as usual on New Year's eve but with no midnight services.

"We will have no computer problem since our service begins at 10 am and finishes at eight in the evening''[tee hee], Sarene Sukhum, commercial director of PB Air said yesterday.

Thai Airways conducted Y2K-readiness test flights on Oct. 8 and had initially decided to go ahead with its New Year's schedule.

Now that it has decided otherwise, it may also have to scrap its award plan to encourage passengers to fly on that night.

Suphachai Pisitvanich, director of the Thai Airways board, was quoted by the local media as saying it was not confident of aviation preparations in Laos, Burma, Vietnam and India.

Many airlines in this region such as Ansett Australia, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines have said they will reschedule and cancel flights on New Year's eve due to uncertainty with computer systems. It has been reported that Malaysian Airlines is likely to cancel up to 20 percent of its domestic flights on Dec. 31, due to uncertainty over the Y2K compliance status of some small local airports.

Air New Zealand said it will reduce domestic and international services between Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 due to a drop in bookings in that period.

Ansett will suspend all domestic and international flights for a 13-hour period spanning the end of 1999, because of a slump in demand.

The low demand for tickets, combined with the extra staff that would have to be on standby to ensure that all systems made the switch successfully, meant it would be more economic to just shut down, an Ansett official said.

Air France will run only a quarter of its normal long-haul flights on New Year's Eve, not because it is afraid of Y2K computer problems but due to the lack of passengers.

Singapore Airlines has said it will cancel or reschedule some flights operating at midnight. The routes to be affected would be flights to Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia as well as transatlantic services, said SIA's deputy chairman and chief executive Cheong Choong Kong.

The anticipation of Y2K-related aviation confusion at Bangkok's busy international airport is already causing concern at some foreign embassies.

"The prediction is that if two or three of the Germany-bound planes get stranded here because of the Y2K-bug we will have a problem because the airlines will not be able to put them up in hotel rooms," said a source at the German Embassy.

Bangkok's hotels are heading into peak tourism season, which starts in December as many Europeans flee the winter cold for Thailand's sunnier climate, with many establishments already fully booked for millennium eve.

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-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999