Phl hopes FAA ban on addt’l flights will be lifted

MANILA, Philippines - The government is confident that the ban imposed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Philippine carriers from mounting additional flights would be lifted soon after an audit team visited the country early this month.

A ranking official of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said the results of the visit of a two-man team sent by the FAA to the Philippines last May 2 and 3 were positive.

“We have a very cordial, friendly, and open meeting of minds. We are very optimistic on positive results hopefully within the year,” said the official who refused to be identified.

FAA manager for international programs and policy John Barbagallo was supposed to head the team to validate whether the Philippines has complied with the recommendations made in 2010.

“Mr. Barbagallo was not able to come due to health reasons as we were informed by FAA officials,” the source explained.

The team included FAA’s Western Pacific-Flight Standards Division manager Nicholas Reyes, and senior FAA representative to the Philippines James Spillane.

The FAA downgraded the safety rating of CAAP in 2008 to category 2 from category 1 upon the recommendation of the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Category 2 indicates that the FAA had assessed that the Philippines’ civil aviation authority had failed to comply with ICAO safety standards for the oversight of air carrier operations. While in Category 2, Philippine air carriers are permitted to continue current operations to the US under heightened FAA surveillance.

Earlier CAAP director general William Hotchkiss III told reporters that the government is confident that the results of the audit to be conducted by the US FAA and the European Union within the next two months would pave the way for the removal of a ban preventing local airlines from flying and mounting additional long haul flights within the year.

He pointed out that the EU Commission directorate general for mobility and transport (DG MOVE) had accepted its invitation for the EU representative on Air Safety is set to conduct an on-site visit to the Philippines from June 3 to 7.

He said the on-site visit would coincide with the meeting of the EU Air Safety Committee on the last week of June in Belgium.

“This committee is the one tasked to determine whether a country can be removed from the EU blacklist,” he stressed.

Hotchkiss said the Philippines was informed about the on-site visit during his recent trip to Brussels, Belgium where he met with EU Commission DG MOVE head director Matthew Baldwin last April 16.

During the meeting, Hotchkiss made a presentation on the general overview of the CAAP mandate concerning issues on air operators certification process and the organization of the aircraft accident inquiry and investigation board in conjunction with the accidents and incident of airlines from 2008 to 2012.

During the trip to Belgium, Hotchkiss also paid a courtesy call to director general for civil aviation Patrick Gandil.

“Hopefully within the year,” he replied when asked when the ban on local airlines would be lifted.

It can be recalled that the 27-member European Commission decided in April 2010 to impose a ban on Philippine carriers including national flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) – jointly owned by taipan Lucio Tan and diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) – and publicly listed Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) of businessman John L. Gokongwei Jr. from European airspace for the failure of CAAP to reform the country’s civil aviation system.