PUTRAJAYA, Nov. 12 -- The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) is confident of meeting the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) requirements in 12 months after it was downgraded to Category 2 recently.

Afzal Abdul Rahim, a member of the CAAM told a press conference today that there are 33 outstanding issues out of 300 questions that the FAA had surveyed in April this year touching on regulatory and legislative matters among others.

However, in order to regain its Category 1 status, the FAA must still be convinced to conduct a reassessment exercise on the regulatory body.

"There are two things. At the end of the day FAA pointed out shortcomings on our part. There are some that are ambiguous. To retain Category 1 status is to close...