 "US aviation regulator upgrades India's air safety rating")
US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has upgraded India’s safety ranking — after fourteen months of close watch — paving the way for Indian carriers to expand their services to the US and enter into agreements with American carriers through code-share to expand operations.
The move will benefit state-run Air India, besides Jet Airways, and Vistara (if and when policy changes allow it to fly international). Vistara, a joint venture between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines, has plans to fly to the US, either directly or with partners.
In January last year, FAA had downgraded India to Category-II, implying safety oversight in the country did not comply with the International Civil Aviation Organisation standards. As a result, no Indian carrier could expand capacity to the US.
The decision to restore India’s Category-I safety ranking, taken after a review of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA’s) measures, was announced on Wednesday. These measures included appointment of 55 pilots as full-time flight operation inspectors, for better safety oversight.
Among other steps taken by DGCA were training aircraft airworthiness officers, issuing procedures for technical evaluation of new types of planes, and documentation of training. DGCA had appointed US consultancy, Wicks Group, to assist it in compliance.
The chief beneficiary of the rating upgrade will be Air India, which was looking at flying from Delhi to San Francisco when the restrictions were imposed. The airline operates daily flights from Delhi to New York, Mumbai to Newark and Delhi to Chicago; the India-US market accounts for 18-20 per cent of its revenue.
Jet Airways, another likely gainer, has a daily flight to Newark. It was planning to launch daily services to New York and Chicago when the restrictions were imposed last year.
Apart from expanding services, Air India and Jet will be able to enter into code-share agreements — commercial pacts allowing airlines to sell on each other’s networks — with US airlines. After the rating downgrade, while Indian carriers could place their codes on flights operated by American airlines, the latter were disallowed from doing so on flights run by the former.
Air India, which had recently become a member of the Star Alliance, was also planning to have a code-share pact with US members of the alliance, such as United. While Jet Airways has a code-share arrangement with United, its code-share with American Airlines was suspended after the downgrade.
In a statement, Jet Airways said, "Jet Airways welcomes the US FAA decision of restoring India's safety rating to Category-I. This is a positive development for the Indian aviation sector. We thank the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Director General of Civil Aviation and all related government agencies for their continuous efforts towards enhancing India’s aviation safety systems."
According to data from Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa) for 2013, Emirates was the largest airline on the India-US route, with an 18.5 per cent share of the market. Air India stood second (13.3 per cent), while Jet Airways controlled 2.3 per cent of the market.
The decision to enhance India’s safety ranking was announced after a meeting between Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and US Transport Secretary Anthony Foxx in Delhi on Wednesday.
“I see this as a positive development, as the downgrade was embarrassing, and was largely due to the non-serious attitude of the previous administration. The downgrade had led other safety agencies like European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to also raise concerns about India’s safety regime and preparedness. However, India’s safety oversight regime needs a fundamental restructuring, as growth will bring in more challenges and India’s under-preparedness might become visible again if long-term strategic correction is not initiated. First step will be to get a technical professional to head DGCA. Without that, a real change will not be possible,” said Capa Chief Executive (South Asia) Kapil Kaul.
The Indian government said it would aim to maintain the highest rating in the coming years. “We are happy with the announcement of being upgraded. We now need to be consistent to maintain the Category-I status,” Raju said.
After a downgrade in January last year, FAA had completed an audit of India’s air safety in December. The US regulator had flagged several shortcomings, including a shortage of full-time flight operation inspectors and lack of technical staff in DGCA, besides weak safety procedures. On March 30 and 31 this year, FAA representatives met government officials to discuss the corrective measures taken by DGCA since the December audit.
On Wednesday, while restoring its Category-I status, FAA lauded India’s efforts. “The hard work undertaken and completed by your government on the safety oversight system led to positive findings during our recent discussion,” said Margaret Gilligan, associate administrator for aviation safety, FAA, in a letter. This April 8 letter, which has been reviewed by the Business Standard, was addressed to M Sathiyavathy, the director-general at DGCA.
The move will benefit state-run Air India, besides Jet Airways, and Vistara (if and when policy changes allow it to fly international). Vistara, a joint venture between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines, has plans to fly to the US, either directly or with partners.
In January last year, FAA had downgraded India to Category-II, implying safety oversight in the country did not comply with the International Civil Aviation Organisation standards. As a result, no Indian carrier could expand capacity to the US.
The decision to restore India’s Category-I safety ranking, taken after a review of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA’s) measures, was announced on Wednesday. These measures included appointment of 55 pilots as full-time flight operation inspectors, for better safety oversight.
Among other steps taken by DGCA were training aircraft airworthiness officers, issuing procedures for technical evaluation of new types of planes, and documentation of training. DGCA had appointed US consultancy, Wicks Group, to assist it in compliance.
The chief beneficiary of the rating upgrade will be Air India, which was looking at flying from Delhi to San Francisco when the restrictions were imposed. The airline operates daily flights from Delhi to New York, Mumbai to Newark and Delhi to Chicago; the India-US market accounts for 18-20 per cent of its revenue.
Jet Airways, another likely gainer, has a daily flight to Newark. It was planning to launch daily services to New York and Chicago when the restrictions were imposed last year.
| TAKING OFF AGAIN India has secured Category-I aviation safety ranking from the US aviation regulator, after 14 months |
What had led to the downgrade earlier?
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Apart from expanding services, Air India and Jet will be able to enter into code-share agreements — commercial pacts allowing airlines to sell on each other’s networks — with US airlines. After the rating downgrade, while Indian carriers could place their codes on flights operated by American airlines, the latter were disallowed from doing so on flights run by the former.
Air India, which had recently become a member of the Star Alliance, was also planning to have a code-share pact with US members of the alliance, such as United. While Jet Airways has a code-share arrangement with United, its code-share with American Airlines was suspended after the downgrade.
In a statement, Jet Airways said, "Jet Airways welcomes the US FAA decision of restoring India's safety rating to Category-I. This is a positive development for the Indian aviation sector. We thank the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Director General of Civil Aviation and all related government agencies for their continuous efforts towards enhancing India’s aviation safety systems."
According to data from Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa) for 2013, Emirates was the largest airline on the India-US route, with an 18.5 per cent share of the market. Air India stood second (13.3 per cent), while Jet Airways controlled 2.3 per cent of the market.
The decision to enhance India’s safety ranking was announced after a meeting between Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and US Transport Secretary Anthony Foxx in Delhi on Wednesday.
“I see this as a positive development, as the downgrade was embarrassing, and was largely due to the non-serious attitude of the previous administration. The downgrade had led other safety agencies like European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to also raise concerns about India’s safety regime and preparedness. However, India’s safety oversight regime needs a fundamental restructuring, as growth will bring in more challenges and India’s under-preparedness might become visible again if long-term strategic correction is not initiated. First step will be to get a technical professional to head DGCA. Without that, a real change will not be possible,” said Capa Chief Executive (South Asia) Kapil Kaul.
The Indian government said it would aim to maintain the highest rating in the coming years. “We are happy with the announcement of being upgraded. We now need to be consistent to maintain the Category-I status,” Raju said.
After a downgrade in January last year, FAA had completed an audit of India’s air safety in December. The US regulator had flagged several shortcomings, including a shortage of full-time flight operation inspectors and lack of technical staff in DGCA, besides weak safety procedures. On March 30 and 31 this year, FAA representatives met government officials to discuss the corrective measures taken by DGCA since the December audit.
On Wednesday, while restoring its Category-I status, FAA lauded India’s efforts. “The hard work undertaken and completed by your government on the safety oversight system led to positive findings during our recent discussion,” said Margaret Gilligan, associate administrator for aviation safety, FAA, in a letter. This April 8 letter, which has been reviewed by the Business Standard, was addressed to M Sathiyavathy, the director-general at DGCA.