PUTRAJAYA, Nov 12 — The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) has denied that its former chief executive officer Ahmad Nizar Zolfakar resigned due to the Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) downgrade of the Malaysian regulatory body to Category 2 recently.

Speaking to a press conference today, its board member Ragunath Kesavan said that Ahmad Nizar had tendered his resignation a month prior to the FAA audit report coming out.

"The CEO tendered his resignation before the decision was made by the FAA, he did it sometime last month in October. It was before they recategorised us.

"To respect his wishes, he came back to be CEO of CAAM after retired from the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) and served more than a year. So he tendered his resignation,” said Ragunath.

CAAM has just begun the search for a new chief executive and expects to find the replacement in a few months time with an interim CEO taking care of Ahmad Nizar’s duties.

The listing of CAAM as a Category 2 Aviation Regulator by the FAA came into effect yesterday following a review conducted in April this year.

The effect of the listing meant that airlines licensed by CAAM would not be able to add new routes to and from the United States.