KUALA LUMPUR: The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded Malaysia's air safety rating, restricting the country's airlines from adding flights to the United States, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. Malaysia has been downgraded to Category 2, said the sources, who did not want to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media. The FAA's safety rating is based on a country's aviation oversight regime and is an assessment of the country's civil aviation authority. The new rating means the air carriers from the country cannot start new services and are restricted to current levels of any existing service to the United States. At present, the only Malaysian airline route to the United States is AirAsia X Bhd services from Kuala Lumpur to Honolulu via Osaka.

Source: The Star November 11, 2019 10:04 UTC