The Ministry of Transport (MoT) has appointed Chester Voo Chee Soon as the new chief executive officer of the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) effective immediately, according to a letter sighted by FocusM.
Previously, Voo served as the director of flight operations at AirAsia Bhd, a wholly owned unit of budget airline AirAsia Group Bhd. Voo’s LinkedIn profile states that he had been with AirAsia since March 2008.
The letter, signed by Transport Minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, stated that Voo succeeded Ahmad Nizar Zolfakar who resigned in October last year, a few weeks before the downgrade of the aviation regulator to Category 2 by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). The downgrade was a first since CAAM achieved Category 1 in 2003.
Since Perikatan Nasional (PN) took over government, MoT had made several changes to CAAM’s board and top management. Ahmad Ridzwan Mohd Salleh had his contract terminated as CAAM chairman. Two other authority members, Afza Abdul Rahim and Ragunath Kesavan, had also quit in April.
Current authority members, as per CAAM’s website, are MoT secretary-general Datuk Isham Ishak, Zainul, Commander (H) Prof Datuk Razali Mahfar, Professor Tan Sri Dr Chuah Hean Teik and Rokhoun Nafsiah Abd Rashid.
Alternate representatives of the Ministry of Finance and MoT are Mohd Fahmi Mohd Mokhtar and Mohamad Radzuan Mazlan, respectively.
Voon takes over during a crucial period for CAAM. Under the previous Pakatan Harapan government, then Transport Minister Anthony Loke moved to disband fellow regulator Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) and merge some of its functions to CAAM. That issue has yet to be resolved. – May 27, 2020
