The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines earned the approval of the International Civil Aviation Organization team which conducted an assessment to determine if the agency comply with international safety standards.
CAAP Media Communication Office chief and spokesperson Eric Apolonio said the assessment, dubbed as ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM), was conducted from May 30 to June 8.
Apolonio said the ICVM is an onsite activity during which ICAO team of subject matter experts collects and assesses evidence provided by the State demonstrating that it has implemented corrective action (or mitigating measures for significant safety concerns) to address previously identified findings, and ICAO validates the collected evidence and information.
ICVM team leader Jean Paul de Villeneuve and team member Michiel Vreedenburgh told CAAP officials during the exit briefing yesterday that they were satisfied with the corrective actions taken by CAAP that comply with international safety standards.
The ICVM team said that CAAP garnered 64.6-percent effective implementation score, which is above the 60-percent ICAO benchmark for safety oversight system.
The aviation authority spends P47.99 million every year to train air navigation professionals, in compliance with the ICAO rules.
The Philippines, as a contracting state of the ICAO, is mandated to establish a program to address the need for the next generation of aviation professionals that ensures adequacy of aviation professionals to fulfill its mandate.
Each passer is entitled to a scholarship, which covers the aspiring air traffic controller’s benefits and allowances for the duration of the training.
The government is also hastening the completion of the Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) technology which will be put in place at the agency’s main office in Pasay City next month.
The CNS/ATM technology, which includes a computer-based flight data processing system, will enable aircraft operators to meet their planned times of departure and arrival and adhere to their preferred flight profiles with minimum constraints and without compromising agreed levels of safety.
With this technology, which started worldwide in 2000, the billing for overflights would be done automatically by computers so that there would no longer be lapses or flights that do not get properly billed.
The P9.8 billion system development project was first conceptualized in accordance with the ICAO Global Air Navigation Plan.