The Department of Transportation (DOTr) – Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) recently passed the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOUP) of the ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM).
Based on the results, CAAP, the regulatory body with jurisdiction over the entire civil aviation system of the Philippines, has improved its effective implementation (EI) with current overall results of 69.68%, which is above the world average of 64.85%. This means the country complies with international safety standards. The current result also showed a significant 10.77% improvement than the 58.91% rating of CAAP in 2016.
CAAP was also cleared on issues relating to Significant Safety Concerns (SSCs). SSCs indicate that a State is not providing sufficient safety oversight to ensure the effective implementation of applicable ICAO Standards. SSCs may be issued in the area of operations, air navigation services, aerodromes, airworthiness or licensing.
ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations with 191 member states that sets standards and regulations necessary for aviation safety, security, and efficiency as well as aviation environmental protection.
Meanwhile, DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade lauded CAAP for passing the global safety audit and improving its score in effective implementation in various safety categories.
In a statement, DOTr Undersecretary for Aviation Manuel Antonio Tamayo mentioned that while Secretary Tugade is happy with the result of the recent global safety audit, he [Tugade] still urges them to perform better, especially in adhering to ICAO’s mandate.
“Secretary Tugade wants CAAP to identify ways to use alternative energy and reduce the carbon emission of the aviation sector in compliance with the ICAO mandate. CAAP is actually planning to recommend to Congress the drafting of an economic and market-based legislation that will enable the use of emissions trading in aviation,” Tamayo said.
He also stressed that CAAP is looking into improving air traffic service system to significantly reduce fuel burn and carbon emissions and increase efficiency by way of information exchange with stakeholders to avoid delays on inbound aircraft on the country’s airports. This could be achieved through maximizing traffic flow of airborne aircraft arriving at a congested airport, implementation of the User-Preferred Routes over the oceanic airspace to allow air carriers to fly on optimized paths instead of using standard routes, and the enhancement of terminal capacity through the use of required navigation performance instead of low-level holding and vectoring as well as the use of continuous descent operations to reduce energy used in an aircraft’s arrival, approach and landing.
Tamayo likewise mentioned that CAAP intends to establish waste disposal facilities in the airports, and regulate aircrafts to ensure they are more fuel-efficient.
“In the next 5 years, CAAP will gradually regulate the types of aircraft imported and registered in the Philippines and ensure that they are more fuel-efficient. CAAP is also looking to establish waste disposal facilities in the airports as well as environmental management and research and development offices in both the aerodromes and among airlines,” he ended.