PUTRAJAYA — A taskforce has been formed by the Malaysian transport ministry to rectify shortcomings which led to the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia’s (CAAM) downgrade to Category 2 by the United States’ Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), said Mr Anthony Loke.

The transport minister said the task force will be headed by former Civil Aviation Department director-general, Kok Soo Chon, and the veteran aviation expert will be assisted by eight other aviation specialists.

“Today, the Transport Ministry has decided to form a task force to oversee and rectify all the findings mentioned by FAA in its audit report.

“The task force will monitor the rectifying action taken by CAAM and the individuals in the oversight body are all independent candidates. Three out of the eight will be experts from outside.

“The timeline for rectifying the findings is 12 months and we hope we can achieve the target within the timeframe given. After that, we will call back FAA to conduct another audit so that our Category 2 can be lifted to Category 1,” Mr Loke said in a press conference at the CAAM headquarters office.

The FAA announced last Monday that it had downgraded the CAAM’s air safety rating for failing to meet safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The assessment applies to the aviation authority and not airlines or airports, but it means airlines licensed by CAAM will not be able to add new routes to and from the US.

The only Malaysian airline that flies to the US directly is AirAsia X, to Honolulu, Hawaii via Osaka, Japan.

Mr Loke also announced that CAAM will review its current fees and charges to make the aviation body financially independent.

“The last time we reviewed our charges and fees was in 2006. So we need to review the charges now so CAAM can be more financially independent. At the moment, CAAM is operating at a budget of RM350 million with its revenue at RM120 million. CAAM’s operating budget comes half from the government and half from the fees and charges,” he said.

Mr Loke refuted a claim made by former prime minister Najib Razak who said that CAAM passed its audit in 2016 under Barisan Nasional’s administration.

Mr Loke told reporters that the last time FAA conducted its audit was in 2003.

“I wish to correct the statement made by Najib Razak, who claimed the last audit was done in 2016. There was no audit in 2016. The last audit was done in 2003. For the past 16 years there was no audit done,” Mr Loke added.

Mr Najib was responding on his official Facebook account a day after the FAA downgraded CAAM to category 2 under the IASA programme.

“This is the first time in our history that our air safety rating fails to meet international standards. It affects our code-sharing with other airlines and it will also affect our national airline’s (MAS) income.

“The last time we were audited by FAA was in 2016 and we passed. This time even though we were given ample time to correct the problems that was identified in April, we failed to rectify it,” said Mr Najib. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT