KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s air safety rating is scheduled to be reassessed by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later this month, said Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (pic).
This comes after the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) succeeded in implementing corrective measures on 26 out of 29 findings by the FAA.
"In this regard, corrective measures to cover three more findings were submitted to the FAA on July 25 this year.
"The FAA will decide with regard to the status again which is expected to be announced in August," the Transport Minister said when replying a question raised by Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman (PN-Kuala Krai) in Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Aug 2).
Abdul Latiff wanted to know the measures taken by the ministry on the FAA's downgrade of CAAM safety status from Category 1 to Category 2.
In November 2019, the FAA had downgraded Malaysia’s air safety rating, restricting the country’s airlines from adding flights to the US.
As a Category Two regulator, air carriers from Malaysia cannot start new services and are restricted to current levels of any existing service to the US.
The carriers would also be subject to additional inspections at US airports.
Dr Wee informed the House that since 2019, the CAAM had succeeded in conforming to 26 out of 29 of the FAA findings.
"There are three more findings which have yet to be resolved.
"Of these, two are related to legal aspects and the remaining is related to technical and training involving preparation of syllabus for inspectors from CAAM,
"We remain committed towards long-term measures and will be amending laws which will be brought to Dewan Rakyat next year," he added.
On a separate matter, Dr Wee said his ministry is working with Wisma Putra and the CAAM to ensure Malaysia retains its seat on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Among the strategies, he added, was that Malaysia had attended conferences and two-way meetings with the European, Arab, Latin America and African civil authorities.
He said that the CAAM has also started offering training courses under the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme with signatories under the ICAO.
