US downgrades Indian aviation safety ratings

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday announced that it had downgraded the country’s aviation safety ranking, according to The Hindu online.Reacting to the downgrade, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh termed as the step by FAA as “very disappointing and surprising” as India had fulfilled 29 out of the 31 issues raised by FAA during inspections last year. Air passengers to and from the US may have to face the brunt as Indian flights would have to go through more engineering and other safety checks in US. The FAA downgrade means that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) does not meet the safety standards set by UN agency International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The news of the downgrade was conveyed to DGCA head Prabhat Kumar.This would bar Air India and Jet Airways from increasing their flights to US from the current level and would not be able to enter into any new code-sharing relationship with any US airline. The move is unlikely to impact the 28-a-week flights (21 of Air India and 7 of Jet Airways) to the US. At present, Air India operates to Chicago and New York while Jet Airways flies only to New York.Singh said India was now 95 per cent compliant with what the FAA had wanted DGCA and the government to do in terms of taking corrective measures. “The remaining five per cent, that is recruitment and training of senior technical personnel in the DGCA, would be completed by March. DGCA will remain in constant touch with FAA which will hopefully hold another review thereafter to revert India to Category I from the downgraded Category II,” he added.FAA conducts the International Aviation Safety Assessment Program (IASA) to assess the civil aviation authorities of each country that has carriers operating to the US.