Philippines defends airline safety after EU ban

MANILA - The Philippines Wednesday defended the safety of its airlines after the European Union banned all airlines from the South-East Asian country from flying into Europe.

Alfonso Cusi, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, said the EU ban does not mean that Philippine aircraft are unsafe.

“Our aircraft meet the international standards in safety,” he said. “It’s a matter of adopting the internationally accepted audit procedures.”

The EU Tuesday placed all Philippine and Sudanese airlines on a watch list of countries banned from flying to the 27-nation bloc.

It said the Philippines and Sudan failed to address safety deficiencies raised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Cusi admitted that “there are still things to be done” to improve the auditing process and oversight capacities of Philippine aviation authorities, but he stressed that his office has taken steps to address the deficiencies, including hiring more technical personnel to conduct inspections and grounding aircraft that are not certified.

Cusi said he invited the EU Safety Aviation Commission to visit the Philippines “for a re-inspection this May to show that we have corrected the problem that they have raised.”

The flag carrier Philippine Airlines is the only carrier registered to fly in and out of Europe, but its last operational flight to the continent was in 1999.