Philippine Airlines Firms Made Pariahs

In Europe
March 31, 2010
tags: ALFONSO CUSI, CAAP, EUROPEAN UNION
by Fernando Gagelonia
midfield.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cusi-cv.jpg

I am swearing under my breath over this:

The European Commission has banned Philippine international airline companies from
flying flying to any of its 27 member nations including the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain
and other European locations even if a substantial number of our compatriots live and
work there.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE62T39M20100330
European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas:

We cannot accept that airlines fly into the EU if they do not fully comply with international
safety standards. The Commission acknowledges efforts made by Philippine authorities
and airlines to improve standards, but we are banning them from the EU as a precaution.
The European Commission has adopted today the thirteenth update of the Community’s
list of airlines banned in the European Union to include all air carriers of two additional
countries: Sudan and the Philippines, on the basis of safety assessments by the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). With this update, restrictions placed on
Air Koryo from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and TAAG from Angola are
partially lifted under certain conditions, while the operations of Iran Air will be restricted.

This is part of the EU listing of banned Filipino aircraft operators:

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air-ban/doc/list_en.pdf

We are ready to support countries that need to build up technical and administrative
capacity to guarantee the necessary standards in civil aviation. But we cannot accept that
airlines fly into the EU if they do not fully comply with international safety standards.
You know what our government’s reaction is?:

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Executive Director Alfonso Cusi:

Even if the Philippines is listed by the EU, it does not mean that Philippine aircraft are
unsafe. Our aircraft meet the international standards in safety. It’s a matter of adopting
the internationally accepted audit procedures.

Now if this is not a clueless and moronic reaction nothing else is.

I’d like to believe Mr. Cusi must be a good and perhaps efficient manager given how he rose
from the ranks in the Aboitiz Transport services group:
But the Mindoro-born politician, who says he ‘sacrificed’ plans to run for Congress the serve at
the CAAC, must think that either the EU is bluffing or that the international body doesn’t know
what it’s doing.

What this functionary, who reportedly has some 90 private consultants in his office, fails to
realize is the ban on Philippine carries is a massive slap on the Philippines itself and directly
harms efforts to expand the international market, and profitability of Filipino airlines to
make them compete successfully against regional and global airlines.

So Mindoro’s loss is our dubious ‘gain’.

Thanks but absolutely no thanks, Mr. Cusi!