Thailand is a major transit hub for wildlife smugglers who often sell highly prized endangered animals on the lucrative black market in Asia.

The authorities became suspicious of the 19-year-old Taiwanese woman’s unusual movements as she prepared to board a flight to Taipei early on April 28, Thailand’s wildlife conservation department said in a statement.

A search at Suvarnabhumi airport’s departure terminal uncovered the Indian star tortoises – 29 alive and one dead – strapped to her body, the department said.

“The suspect had used adhesive tape to immobilise the animals, packed them into cloth bags and attached them to her body to evade detection,” it added.

The Thai customs department said the tortoises – protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species – commanded a high price on the black market, placing their total estimated value at around US$9,000.

The woman was charged with illegally transporting animals and evading customs controls.

Tha authorities said they were investigating whether she was part of a wider smuggling network.

Indian star tortoises are classified as a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which says they have been targeted to meet international demand for use as “exotic pets”.

The surviving tortoises were transferred to wildlife conservation officials for care and to serve as evidence. AFP

Credits: Thai Airport

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However, Walsh, speaking on April 8 at the IATA World Data Symposium held in Singapore, is confident of recovery and said airlines are not facing “an existential crisis”.

He said closed borders during the pandemic had a far greater impact, when 90 per cent of capacity vanished.

Citing the industry’s resilience, he noted it took four months for recovery after the September 11 attacks in 2001, and around 10 to 12 months after the 2008 global financial crisis.

Calling the jump in ATF a “wake-up call”, IATA senior vice president sustainability and chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen, in her Sustainability and Economic Outlook presentation, drew attention to the need for greater global energy investment, in particular low-emission fuels, which stood at just 1.2 per cent of 2025’s US$3.3 trillion total energy sector.

Venture capitalists, she argued, have yet to turn a profit on investments in AI, whereas the use of sustainable aviation fuel, a key part of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, is reducing emissions.

During the CEO panel discussion, airline chiefs from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore highlighted the increase in ATF forcing capacity cuts and higher air fares.

“Fortunately, demand in the region is still strong but how can the fare increases be sustained,” Nasaruddin A Bakar, president and group CEO of Malaysia Airlines Group, quipped.

For now, the group’s strategy is to contain costs as much as possible.

Thai Airways CEO Chai Eamsiri said the airline is having to adapt to survive and is “not thinking of profitability”.

Meanwhile, Walsh said digital transformation can give airlines the opportunity to “better serve customers” and that the industry remains committed.

He cited the pandemic and how investment in technology such as self check-in kiosks away from the airport was a “win-win”.

Eamsiri noted customer service is a priority, and while investment in other projects is being postponed, the airline is proceeding with AI projects involving enterprise data.

For Scoot, CEO Leslie Thng said investing in Gen AI has helped the low-cost carrier improve customer engagement and work efficiency in optimising aircraft and crew deployment.

Scoot has set up a data department and data warehouse and is using data analytics to power business and manpower productivity, he added.

The industry has to continue to invest in digital transformation, he opined: “The airline industry cannot fall behind as the customers already expects it.”

He acknowledged Scoot’s chatbot had a low rating, but its adoption of Gen AI was better, and agentic AI is expected to be “even better” as data privacy is intact and the system is protected.

“(AI) Incidents outside the industry provide a good lesson and we continue to learn from outside and inside the aviation industry. The questions is when we will be attacked and how quickly we recover.”

Thng remarked that the aviation industry must have the appetite to experiment, as not all digital transformation efforts are successful.

Credits: Airlines

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