A lower court has issued a temporary restraining order against the indefinite suspension of leisure airline Magnum Air Inc. (Skyjet) by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 119 Judge Pedro Gutierrez on May 22 issued a 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) against the suspension, which was due to safety concerns.
The CAAP order was issued on May 15 and signed by CAAP director general William Hotchkiss III. It was delivered to the airline on May 18, the same day it took effect.
Another airline, SEAIR International, was also suspended due to safety issues.
“For CAAP, the safety of passengers and our airports and airspace is paramount. The rules are simple,” CAAP said in a statement after issuance of the TRO.
“It is very clear that the May 15 suspension order was irregular, not valid and issued without due process of law,” Gutierrez said in the order.
He added the suspension was “premature and done without investigation and without inspection of the airplane of the plaintiff; thus, violative of the constitutional and economic rights of and causing damage to the plaintiff.”
Skyjet president Dino Reyes Chua said the suspension order claimed an intensive investigation was conducted, but that CAAP could not produce an investigation report.
Chua said they ran to the court after failing to get CAAP officials to engage in a dialogue.
“We really felt that our constitutional and economic rights were violated. We are doing this for the whole aviation industry so that no other independent airline operator could suffer these losses in the future. This is truly a nightmare for our company and to our thousands of affected passengers,” Chua said.
Skyjet cited Section 71 of Republic Act No. 9497 mandating that any suspension or revocation of the Airline Operator’s Certificate (AOC) must be done with due process, and that the operator must be given a chance to reply. Section 71 (e) also allows any airline operator or aggrieved party to get injunctive relief from the proper court of jurisdiction.
“Aside from the millions of losses that we are suffering, the most sad part here is the inconvenience of the almost 3,000 affected passengers stranded in the island destinations due to this illegal suspension,” SkyJet chief operating officer Capt. Ted Fojas said.
“The airline seats serving our island tourist destinations are not enough, that’s why even if we already refunded the money to our passengers, they still have to cancel their trip because all of the other flights are fully booked by now (considering it’s the summer peak season) and they can no longer be accommodated by any other air carrier,” he added.
The airline is also seeking P20 million in damages, saying the suspension has affected 2,600 passengers.
CAAP on May 18 announced the emergency suspension of the AOCs of Skyjet and SEAIR International following the release of a report by a European Union (EU) assessment team which visited the country last April. The team stayed in the Philippines for more than a week to assess if any safety improvements had been done by the seven air carriers still banned from operating to the EU. CAAP added it also made its own assessment.
The agency said the report by the EU assessment team had eight observations against Skyjet covering different areas, from flight data monitoring and quality assurance to airworthiness and maintenance control.
SEAIR International, on the other hand, had 15 safety observations against it issued by the team, covering different areas ranging from management structure SMS and accident prevention to flight safety program and flight data management.
The regulatory agency said corrective measures must first be made before the suspension can be lifted.
Skyjet currently has operations to Basco, Batanes, and Busuanga, Palawan from Manila, while Seair-I flies to Basco in Batanes, Caticlan, and Tablas Island in Romblon from Manila.
