By NOEL MURPHY
AVALON Airport’s first international carrier, Cebu Pacific, is the airline behind the second worst air crash in The Philippines’ history.
Cebu Pacific was banned from flying in Europe in 2009 after 104 passengers and crew died when DC9 Flight 387 crashed into a mountain in 1998. The cause of the crash was sheeted to pilot error.
European Commission (EC) Transport reinstated the ban in December.
Cebu Pacific is set to operate daily low-cost flights between Avalon and Manila under a landing rights deal outlined by Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese.
Cebu Pacific is set to operate daily low-cost flights between Avalon and Manila under a landing rights deal outlined by federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese.
Cebu Pacific chief Lance Gokongwei last month said the carrier was looking to Australian flights following the purchase last year of an A330 long-range fleet.
The European ban on Cebu applies to all Philippines flights, similar to its ban on Indonesian carriers and airlines from Kazakhstan and African countries such as Congo, Gabon and Equitorial Guinea.
“While the European Union and its member states are working with safety authorities in other countries to raise safety standards across the world, there are still some airlines operating in conditions below essential safety levels,” the EC Transport website states.
Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said Cebu would be subject to a rigorous safety assessment before it could obtain a foreign air operator’s certificate to fly in and out of Australia.
“We’d assess the safety and performance of the airline, we’d talk to The Philippines’ air safety regulator and we would request a lot of information from the airline and obviously assess its safety record before making a judgement,” CASA spokesman Peter Gibson told the Independent.
Mr Gibson said CASA would also scrutinise The Philippines’ air safety regulatory system.
“We’d take that into account too. Under our system each application is assessed on its merits, we’d look at all available information regarding safety.”
An Air Philippines Boeing 737 crash that killed 131 became the country’s worst flight disaster two years after the Cebu Pacific tragedy.
