KUALA LUMPUR: The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) has requested the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States to conduct a reassessment within the next 12 months to restore its Category 1 Aviation Regulator status.
“It should be noted that plans are already well underway to address the findings of the audit,” CAAM chairman, Captain Ahmad Ridzwan Mohd Salleh, said in a statement today.
This follows the FAA informing CAAM that the latter was being listed as a Category 2 Aviation Regulator as of today. This is as a result of an FAA review of CAAM that was carried out in April 2019.
CAAM acknowledges that in carrying out its duties as an aviation regulator, some shortcomings existed.
“Given the critical nature of aviation, CAAM takes the FAA’s assessment constructively and has moved to make serious changes in its structure and operations.
“The chief executive officer of CAAM has tendered his resignation on Nov 1, 2019, and in the interim, an executive committee of the board has been established to oversee the operations of CAAM,” Ahmad Ridzwan said.
He noted that the Transport Ministry had been informed of these internal developments.
The FAA carries out audits of regulators who oversee the operation of flights into the United States.
The audit of CAAM covered areas of legislation, oversight, delegation of authority as well as the adequacy of the number of technical personnel employed by the authority.
Ahmad Ridzwan also stressed that the assessment only covered CAAM’s role as an aviation regulator.
“This categorisation is not an assessment of airlines, airports or air traffic services that fall under the purview of CAAM,” he said.
However, due to CAAM being listed as a Category 2 regulator, airlines licensed by it will not be able to add new routes to and from the United States.
Ahmad Ridzwan explained that the assessment and subsequent categorisation by the FAA was solus and unilateral in nature, and within its rights as an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) member state.
He said CAAM continued to contribute to the development and oversight of aviation via its seat on the ICAO Council.
It also remained fully in compliance with all ICAO standards and legislation, having being audited by ICAO as recently as the middle of 2019, he added. — Bernama
