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 tender...