CAAP Lifts Zest Air Suspension

Manila, Philippines - The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) announced the resume in operation of a low-cost carrier Zest Air on Tuesday, August 20 after the company was able to address safety issues raised by government inspectors.

Last August 16, CAAP suspended the Zest Air's Air Operator Certificate (AOC) due to numerous safety violations in several checklist of the Philippine Civil Aviation Regulations (PCAR).

“As of now, three aircraft has been released for flight. Other aircraft inspected requires closure on some open items, and will be cleared once closed,” said CAAP  Deputy Director General John C. Andrews. The release of Zest Air aircraft for flight is subject to inspection by Flight Safety Inspectorate Service (FSIS) airworthiness inspectors.

"This is a relief and a welcome news. It confirms that cooperation between CAAP and the airline is more productive. It confirms that Zest Air has been following standards required and will continue to do so," reiterated Zest Air Director Joy Caneba.

“They have released three of our 11 aircraft for flights. Inspections cannot continue because of the weather,” Caneba added.

ZestAir has a fleet of 10 Airbus A320 and one A319. The three cleared are A320 aircraft with registry numbers RPC- 8994, RPC-8996 and RPC-8993.

“We will go back to normal operations as soon as possible, and because of this we are more determined to be the best player in the market — be bigger and give only the best service to our passengers,” Caneba said.

The following serious deviations were noted by CAAP that leads to suspension of the airline: no qualified accountable manager, failure to check aircraft logs, flight manifest, weather etc., failure to present to authorities the airman license, series of occurrences that affected several flight operations, refueling with passengers on board and excessive flight duty time.

The airline estimated lost Php 70 million in revenues and inconvenience of over 7,000 passengers each day it was suspended.

Zest Air is expecting the delivery of two aircraft in the fourth quarter of the year.