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Malaysian Aviation Authority DOWNGRADED!

By Luke Will | November 21, 2019

In the interest of national security and safety of air passenegrs, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia’s (CAAM’s) air safety rating following a damning assessment.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cut Malaysia to a Category 2 nation on Monday (18th Nov), meaning the country’s carriers are now prohibeted from setting up new flights between the cities of New York and San Francisco. The move came in light of a damming assessment, where the FAA cited deficiencies by the nation’s civil aviation authority in areas ranging from technical expertise to record keeping.

Malaysia has suffered greatly over the past few years. | (c) Lesley L

Malaysia is the third Asian country now branded with such a reputation tarnish – the others being Bangladesh and Thailand – highlighting the issues regulators experience with the growing development of the aviation industry in the region; The downgrading now makes Asia the region with the most markets where airlines are restricted from US airspace.

Speaking out about the move, analyst at Maybank Investment Bank,  Mohshin Aziz, said:

The moment they hear Malaysia is Category 2 questionable safety, you have a lot of people start to wonder, ‘oh, I don’t want to fly with Malaysian carriers’ – hurting local pilots and engineers, blocking them from getting hired overseas, and drive up insurance premiums and leasing rates.

This act by the FAA adds further disrepute to the Malaysian Aviation industry, which suffered through the 2014 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) and the downing of another flight over Ukraine (MH17). New routes now, cannot be opened to the US or code-shares with American carriers created. It also means Malaysian aircraft will be more closely monitored at US airports, though notably only one carrier, AirAsia X, curremtly flies there – to Honolulu. The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia announced in reaponse to the downgrading, that it “takes the FAA’s assessment constructively and has moved to make serious changes in its structure and operations”, with the Foreign Finance Minister for Malaysia adding at an event in Jakarta that it was “unlikely to affect local economy or tourism”.
If Indonesia is an example to take, who took 9 years to be reugraded to Category I status in 2016 from downgrade in 2009, then Malaysia could be along way from ‘being in the clear’

Malaysian Aviation Authority DOWNGRADED! was provided for Mentour Aviation by Travel Radar – Home of Aviation News. Travel Radar Media brings the latest aviation & travel news!

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