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FAA Downgrades India

: Feb 6, 2014 - : 9:23 am

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded India’s air safety rating, thereby restricting Indian airlines from starting new services to the U.S.
FAA announced that India has been assigned a story_category 2 rating under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program, based on a recent reassessment of the country’s civil aviation authority.
“This signifies that India’s civil aviation safety oversight regime does not currently comply with the international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),” FAA says.
With a story_category 2 rating, India’s carriers can continue existing service to the United States, but will not be allowed to establish new service to the United States until corrective actions are taken. FAA does not support reciprocal code-share arrangements between air carriers for the assessed state and U.S. carriers when the civil aviation authority has been rated story_category 2.
The downgrade will severely affect cash-strapped national carrier Air India, which is preparing to join the Star Alliance, and debt-ridden leading private airline Jet Airways as they won’t be able to increase flights to the U.S.
“This would bar Air India and Jet Airways from increasing their flights to U.S. from the current level,” says a Civil Aviation Ministry official.
India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, averaging about 11% growth a year, according to the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. India is expected to be the third-largest aviation market by 2020, handling 336 million domestic and 85 million international passengers with projected investment to the tune of $120 billion by 2020.
The decision by the FAA will also impede the plans of Singapore Airlines Ltd and AirAsia Bhd that have proposed joint ventures with Tata Sons Ltd of flying to the U.S.
“It’s surprising and very disappointing as India has fulfilled 29 out of the 31 deficiencies highlighted during the first round in September,” Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh reacts.  A three-member technical team of the FAA carried out the second round of audit of the DGCA to check whether corrective steps have been taken to resolve the deficiencies highlighted during the first round in September.
The FAA decision is unlikely to impact the 28-a-week flights (21 of Air India and 7 of Jet Airways) to the U.S. Currently, Air India operates to Chicago and New York while Jet Airways flies only to New York.
Singh says India is now 95% compliant with what the FAA had wanted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (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, will be completed by March. DGCA will remain in constant touch with FAA which will hopefully hold another review thereafter to revert India to story_category I from the downgraded story_category II,” the minister hopes.
DGCA is implementing the observations and suggestions made by FAA during their December audit, but may take some time to fully comply with all the recommendations. The DGCA is also in the process of hiring Flight Operations Inspectors (FOIs) on a contractual basis after FAA expressed severe concern over the lack of full-time FOIs.
FAA, while making the announcement, however, commends the Indian government for taking these important actions, and looks forward to continued progress by Indian authorities to comply with internationally mandated aviation safety oversight standards.
“The U.S. and Indian aviation officials have developed an important working relationship as our countries work to meet the challenges of ensuring international aviation safety. The FAA is available to work with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to help India regain its story_category 1 rating,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta says.

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