The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) is requiring air freight forwarders, general sales agents, cargo sales agents and offline carriers applying for an authority to operate to provide original copies of required documents.
Starting August 7, the duplicate copies are to be compared against the original copies and certified authentic by the applicant in the presence of CAB, said the board’s executive director, Carmelo Arcilla, in an advisory reiterating Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 2, series of 2019.
MC 2-2019 states that only applications with complete and valid documents shall be accepted by CAB and given due course within three working days.
“Submissions done not in conformity with this requirement shall not be received for resolution,” he added.
Last April, Arcilla said only applications with complete attachments and paid the corresponding filing fee shall be received and considered filed. This is part of the agency’s “continuous efforts to deliver more efficient and expedient services.”
The complete list of requirements and filing fees is available on CAB’s website.
In an earlier advisory dated March 20, CAB said it would rationalize the requirements and shorten the processing time for unopposed applications for original/renewal of authority to operate as an international/domestic airfreight forwarder, general sales agent of foreign airlines (passenger/cargo), offline carrier, general sales agent of domestic airlines (passenger/cargo), and cargo sales agent/breakbulk agent for licensed airfreight forwarders.
This is also part of CAB’s continuing effort to improve public services, specifically by reducing the processing time of applications and further shortening the list of requirements.
The advisory noted that CAB will accept only applications with complete and valid documentary requirements. The application will be given due course by CAB within three working days from completion of all requirements.
Further, CAB and the Parañaque local government on March 19 launched the Data Interchange for Ease of Doing Business and Regulation Program.
The Parañaque local government has been designated as the pilot local government unit (LGU) of the program, which entails integrating CAB’s database with that of an LGU’s. With this, CAB will no longer require the mayor’s permit from the applicant airfreight forwarder based in Parañaque because it can already check its status with the LGU.
According to CAB, the program aims to protect the public from fly-by-night companies by coordinating the monitoring of all aviation entities conducting business in Parañaque, where many airfreight forwarding companies are based.
