This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 17, 2022 - October 23, 2022

IT had seemed like an impossible task. Workers’ morale was at an all-time low, while staff turnover was as high as it had ever been, with eight out of 11 division head positions sitting vacant. The task was made harder when the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) to Category 2 status — a ranking that prevents Malaysia’s airlines from launching new routes or adding new flights to the US.

The US aviation regulator FAA lowered the country’s aviation safety rating to the lowest level in November 2019 — a first for the technical regulator since it was assigned a Category 1 rating in 2003 — after it failed to meet the safety standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

But Datuk Captain Chester Voo Chee Soon, along with his team, persevered in the roller-coaster ride. On Oct 1, three years after the downgrade, CAAM managed to restore the country’s air safety ranking to Category 1. This came at just the right time, as the aviation industry is once again poised for growth after two years of wrestling with the Covid-19 pandemic, which had grounded airlines and halted air travel all over the world.

And what seemed like a daunting task at the outset has now become one of the 47-year-old CEO’s greatest achievements at the government agency, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Transport.

Speaking during an interview with The Edge last week, Voo addressed the fact that he felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of the challenges when he assumed the role as CAAM’s CEO in June 2020. One of the first tasks for him was to resolve the 33 audit findings of the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) raised by the FAA in 2019, which ranged from lack of manpower to inadequately trained aviation safety inspectors, and incomplete record-keeping as well as deficient inspection procedures.

“I felt it was impossible initially [because I] didn’t believe that just by fixing the findings, the problem would be resolved. For example, one of the findings was about the lack of manpower. I could have just hired people to address the shortage, but that would not have fixed the root cause, which was the high attrition rate.

“I didn’t want to do it the easy way. Instead, I took the tedious way by changing the mindset of our staff. I needed to fix the whole ecosystem, starting with the reasons behind the high attrition rate. Was it motivation? The push and pull factors? Was it industry disparity? Was it the salary gap between public and private sectors? There were so many things that we actually worked on and we ended up rebuilding the entire human resources base,” he says.

“Back then, I told my staff that we shouldn’t just fix what was stated in the 33 audit findings. We had to fix the whole system. It took me months to get them to believe that they must do it this way, but we did it. In fact, CAAM had issued 256 publications within 18 months. That is 14 documents per month. This is a credit to every staff and officer at CAAM for their efforts,” says Voo.

According to him, the overall staff morale has stabilised. Today, CAAM’s attrition rate stands at 0.5%, without taking into account those who retire. It employs about 1,400 people, including technical personnel, officers and administrative staff, up from 1,200 when Voo first joined the agency.

Voo had also been able to fill the eight vacant division head positions within a month after taking the helm by promoting employees internally. “We promoted internal talent. The idea here is to be brave and give people a chance. If you want the agency to run effectively and efficiently, you need high staff morale to begin with. Thus, you need to give opportunities to internal talent. It was just a matter of being brave to put the right people in the right job through a competent interview.”

Of course, Voo is also fallible. But when he does make a mistake, he makes sure he bounces back quickly. He takes a minute to reflect on what went wrong, and then he gets ready to rectify it.

“I am ready to admit my mistakes. I will acknowledge it if he or she was not the right person for that position after all. But I will not give up on them. Rather, I will choose the long way of aligning them, training them, teaching them and hand-holding them [until they excel at their job],” he says.

Now, the agency is picking back up where it had left off. But Voo is not taking a moment for granted. “It has not always been easy. Morale is something that even after it is built can be easily damaged. We have regular town-hall meetings with the staff, and I do frequent in-person visits to the various units in CAAM. I have an open policy where my staff can message me directly. I don’t believe that anyone should go through the ranks in order to get to me. That is too troublesome. In simple words, I treat them (staff) like my family,” he adds.

CAAM has also revamped its record-keeping and/or inspection procedures to comply with FAA standards.

“The key to any successful organisation is to have documentation, processes, correct implementation and the ability to show evidence, especially for a regulator and a service provider in air traffic control. We have also aligned CAAM with a good finance strategy, which means that the fees and charges that we collect are in line with our efficiency, so that the industry will benefit from cost-saving opportunities,” says Voo.

“For example, it used to take an airline 12 to 18 months to get approval for a new Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC). Now, we have issued an official time charter where we guarantee four months [for an airline] to get an AOC approval with full documentation, which we have further improved to three months this year.

“By doing this, the industry would be able to introduce more capacity. It is good for the economy. When the regulator is efficient and service-oriented, the industry will save on opportunity cost,” he adds.

AirAsia X Bhd (AAX), the long-haul low-cost arm of Capital A Bhd, is the only Malaysian airline flying to the US, from Kuala Lumpur to Honolulu via Osaka, Japan. It had suspended the service in March 2020 in the wake of the pandemic, but restarted it in July.

And while Malaysia Airlines has no direct flights to the US, it has code share arrangements with US carriers.

“The other airlines that were affected [by the FAA Category 2 downgrade] were either existing or new airlines that wanted to add capacity to Hong Kong and China. For example, we had a Malaysia-flagged airline that wanted to launch new cargo services into Hong Kong, but was not allowed to do so because the Hong Kong authorities said it has to have a Category 1 rating in order to fly into Hong Kong for the first time,” Voo recalls.

Nevertheless, he concedes that the pandemic had given CAAM a bit of a breather to restore its ranking to Category 1. In December last year, the FAA conducted a reassessment of Malaysia’s civil aviation authority.

This time, the audit found 29 findings that needed to be resolved before it can regain Category 1 status. “Out of the 29 findings, 25 were administrative in nature and another three were legislative. In July, when the FAA returned for a reassessment, they closed all the 29 findings, which resulted in the upgrade,” Voo notes.

“The Category 1 gift is timely because the industry is now coming out of the crisis and is once again growing with no restrictions. Airlines are reinstating capacity, and have reached more than 50% of pre-pandemic levels,” he says, adding he is “cautiously confident” that the worst period in aviation history has now passed.

With the reinstatement of the country’s air safety ranking to Category 1, airlines from Malaysia can now launch new flights or expand their services to the US, as well as enter into code-sharing arrangements with US carriers.

In an Oct 1 statement, AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd group CEO Bo Lingam said: “After an industry reset following the pandemic, this announcement could not have come at a better time as travel demand picks up. A Category 1 safety rating will not only allow us to expand our future network plans but also stabilise the country’s aviation industry as a whole.”

Voo says CAAM is not letting its guard down, given that there is no guarantee that the FAA won’t return for a reassessment of Malaysia’s air safety.

“Even after regaining Category 1 status, the FAA can come back for a reassessment in 12 to 24 months to say they want a relook at what we have done since our upgrade. That is why it is not about fixing the findings, but about fixing the whole system. It must be resilient and robust. And I believe the foundation is set. We are audit-ready anytime,” says Voo.

He also believes that the foundation of CAAM is one that the next leader can take over, make better and personalise.

“Now that everything has been set up, the next leader who comes in will have a strong foundation and a clean sheet to start off with, and he or she can use his or her personal touch to bring it to an even higher level. I am very confident of the foundation, the morale and competency that we have built. It is strong, resilient and robust. We have made every effort possible,” he adds.

Aviation consultancy Endau Analytics founder and analyst Shukor Yusof says while the return to Category 1 status is commendable, the real test, however, is if CAAM can maintain the Category 1 status in the coming years.

“The airline industry will soon face financial and geopolitical challenges unlike anything we’ve seen in the past. Start-up carriers that have recently been issued AOCs by CAAM need to live up to the standards expected of a Category 1 country,” he tells The Edge.

An AOC allows an operator to start scheduled air passenger and cargo operations like that of Malaysia Airlines, Capital A and Batik Air. SKS Airways Sdn Bhd, which is wholly owned by Johor-based SKS Group and founded by low-profile businessman Alan Sim See Kiong, was granted an AOC by CAAM in October last year, while MYAirline Sdn Bhd received one in October this year.

“To us, for any applicant, as long as you satisfy the economic requirements of the Malaysian Aviation Commission and the safety and security requirements of CAAM, you will be awarded an AOC. At the moment, there are two more applicants for an AOC but these are for [operating] non-scheduled air passenger services,” says Voo.

But there’s no time to rest. The Economic Planning Unit has approved an allocation for CAAM to start the country’s first unmanned traffic management (UTM) system by October 2023. The implementation of the UTM system will allow unmanned aircraft owners and remote pilots to register — thereby creating a national registry for unmanned aircraft and drones — and receive approvals, in order to manage the ever-increasing number of unmanned aircraft operating within civilian airspace.

“With this system up, what this means for Malaysia is approval for drone flights will be within 24 hours. Currently, it is 14 to 21 days,” Voo says, adding that there are an estimated 80,000 drones in the country.

On Nov 8, CAAM will also be launching a new electronic licensing system, which will ease the processing of all commercial aviation licences and permits to pilots, engineers and air traffic controllers.

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