CAAP: US aviation authorities may restore PHL Category 1 status in Oct.

A team from the United States Federal Aviation Authority is headed for the Philippines in the next two months, a visit that may yield an upgrade back to Category 1 status by October and allow Philippine carriers to mount additional flights to the US, an official said Friday.

 

“We don’t know when that will be, it could be sometime by September or October. We’ll know by that time whether there are any other remaining hurdles,” (Ret.) Gen. William Hotchkiss III, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), told reporters at the sidelines of the 1st Aviation Safety and Corporate Governance Symposium. 

 

Based on recommendations by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the US-FAA downgraded Philippine aviation safety standards to Category 2 for failing to comply with safety standards on air carrier operations.

 

Before the year ends or as early as October, CAAP is confident the Philippines would get back its Category 1 status, Hotchkiss noted. “It is now being implemented, and as I speak, a second visitation from the FAA is on-going and all indications are positive towards a possible upgrade before the end of the year,” he said.

 

The task now for the Philippines is to make sure that improvements in aviation safety are long-term in nature, Hotchkiss said. “We have to address the sustainability issue. Even if we get FAA upgrade before the end of this year, we’ll still need their presence to see to it that things are moving towards sustainability,” he added.

'Remaining hurdles'

 

Among concerns that must be addressed is the amendments to Republic Act 9497 —  the law that created CAAP. 

 

“The last remaining hurdles, which are considered show stoppers, are the amendments to RA 9497 to authorize the Republic of the Philippines to transfer its State of Registry responsibilities to the State of the Operator, the creation of an independent and separate government agency to handle aircraft accident investigation to replace the present AAIIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation and Inquiry Board),” Hotchkiss noted.

 

In July, a US FAA team — particularly from the Western Pacific-Flight Standards Division — headed by manager Nicholas Reyes and senior FAA representative to the Philippines James Spillane staged a Philippine audit to validate if CAAP has complied with the recommendations made in 2010.

 

William Hess of the US-FAA is now the Philippines as part of a two-year Technical Assistance Services Agreement signed on June 4.

 

On July 10, the European Union lifted a ban that blocked Philippine carriers from entering European skies two years after it was imposed to penalize CAAP for failing to reform the civil aviation system. 

 

Less than six months earlier, ICAO lifted sanctions on significant security concerns over the Philippines after CAAP passed an audit in February. — VS, GMA News