Flight safety and Asia

Asian Aviation Boom Creating Safety Challenges Across the Region

Problems with regulators and safety training point to where the problem starts here, and that's with airline leadership too eager to expand and governments that to inept or outclassed to do their duty for passengers.
- Jason Clampet

For Asia's aviation industry, the growing pains have just begun.

A year of disasters, the disappearance of Flight 370 and financial turbulence highlight the challenges confronting the world's biggest air travel market, where governments, regulators and airlines are struggling to keep up after a decade of astonishing growth.

A U.N. agency's warning about airline safety in Thailand, one of the world's top tourist destinations, is just the latest sign of ferment in the industry.

The boom has been driven by the region's explosive economic growth as well as market liberalizations that have allowed dozens of new discount carriers to flourish, turning the airline business on its head.