Thaksin was roundly snubbed on Wednesday by THAI's labour union, which strongly objected to his call for THAI to move its domestic operations to the new airport from September 15. They cited the practical and logistical problems that would arise, causing scheduling chaos and inconveniencing passengers.

Inbound international passengers who need to connect to flights to domestic destinations, as well as passengers arriving in Bangkok on domestic services to catch outbound international flights would face the impossible task of travelling between the two airports by road through Bangkok's notorious traffic jams. That is because all international flights will continue to take off and land at Don Muang until the switch to Suvarnabhumi on September 28.

This means many passengers who need to change planes could miss their flights and THAI would have take responsibility for their hotel accommodation and other expenses. THAI's union said that if the government insisted on opening the new airport ahead of schedule for domestic flights, it would ask its members not to report for duty at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Apart from the inconvenience to passengers, which should be taken very seriously and avoided by any airline, there are other problems pertaining to safety. According to THAI's union, maintenance crews would not be able to work on aircraft at Suvarnabhumi until the September 28 switchover because most of their equipment and spare parts will still be at Don Muang, where maintenance and repair work on aircraft serving domestic and international routes is done.

Most THAI employees learned of Thaksin's plan on Saturday, when the caretaker prime minister announced it on his weekly radio address, perhaps to impress the rural masses that make up Thai Rak Thai Party's traditional base of support. For Thaksin, who likes to portray himself as a tenacious CEO-style leader who gets things done, the situation reflects poorly on his leadership, which has not only turned out to be corruption-prone, but also very unsophisticated, to say the least. THAI is a major company with a global business to run and international customers to serve. It operates in a cut-throat business environment. The national flag carrier should not be subjected to the whims of an uncouth and unstable political leader. THAI's union did the right thing in resisting Thaksin's attempt to run the airline. After all, no professionally run airline could succumb to this kind of political pressure and hope to maintain its credibility.

Thaksin and his Cabinet must learn to treat the aviation industry with the respect that it deserves, regardless of the complaints that we, passengers, might have over the services provided by THAI and other airlines. The aviation industry is not a toy for confused politicians to play around with. More fundamentally, the fact that such a haphazard approach to the Suvarnabhumi switchover has been allowed to stand as official policy says a lot about the quality of this country's approach to public administration, not to mention the immaturity of our top political leader.

The transition to Suvarnabhumi could have been and should still be planned methodically, with the full participation of all stakeholders, including international airlines. Moving to a new airport is much more complicated than moving into a new house. As it stands, airlines are being notified at short notice about the new relocation plan, which even now continues to evolve. The situation only increases the likelihood of chaos when the new airport officially opens.

There is no time for the authorities to undertake the safety evaluations needed to maintain international standards. The airport fiasco shows Thailand is still a long way from being the respectable country we desire to be. As long as we empower politicians who know next to nothing about sound governance, they will muck it up for all of us.