EU ambassador welcomes CAAP meet with Phl carriers

MANILA, Philippines - European Union Ambassador Guy Ledoux welcomed the meeting of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and Philippine carriers with the EU air transportation officials in Brussels recently, saying it is a “re-established” dialogue following the lifting of safety concerns.

During a visit of ambassadors of EU member states that he led at the state-of-the-art facilities of Lufthansa Technik Philippines at Pasay City on Thursday, Ledoux, head of the EU delegation to the Philippines, said CAAP officials and representatives of Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific explained all the measures they are taking to ensure quality control and submitted documents to the European Commission Department of Transport during the meeting in Brussels.

He said the first major achievement was the lifting of the serious safety concerns by the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) last month “that has definitely triggered this meeting in Brussels.”

The ICAO officially removed the Philippines on March 7 from the list of countries with significant safety concerns, following two audits in February and October last year.

“The meeting with the EU officials, the people in charge of air transport so it was not only CAAP who attended that but there was also representatives of PAL and one from Cebu Pacific that they could explain all the measures they are taking to ensure the quality control.

And now our colleagues in Brussels are studying all the documentations that all the participants to the meeting provided then they will see what will be the next step,” Ledoux told reporters.

“I think what is important is that a very short dialogue has been reestablished between CAAP and the Department of Transport of the European Commission,” he said.

The CAAP said last month that local aviation authorities would go to Brussels this month to seek the lifting of EU ban on Philippine carriers.

The ambassador said  many companies are interested in the resumption of direct flights to Europe.