State-owned Air India can commence operations of Dreamliners to Japan with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) saying it no longer sees any “significant safety concerns” (SSCs) in India’s airline operations.
A senior official in the ministry of civil aviation said, “The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) had said Air India cannot switch aircraft type and replace Boeing 777-ER with more fuel-efficient Dreamliners because of the two SSCs raised by ICAO in their audit in December last year.A corrective action plan (CAP) was undertaken by the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) and all concerns have now been addressed.”
The ICAO primarily had two concerns related to airworthiness and operations. The concern on airworthiness related to approval of major modifications and repairs carried out on foreign manufactured aircraft and registered in India while the concern on operations related to the procedure for grant of Air Operator Permit to non-scheduled operators and flight documentation system of scheduled airlines. Both of these have been addressed, said DGCA Arun Mishra.
Dedicated teams have been constituted within the DGCA to issue aircraft operators’ certificated (AOCs) to the 44 NSOPs who fly out of India. Processes have been put in place to check their airworthiness and approve applications within 15 days. Earlier, NSOPs had to only inform the DGCA to fly out of India.
A three member ICAO Team visited India from 19-23 August, 2013 for the validation of the CAP implementation.
During the visit, the team examined all documentary evidences at DGCA headquarters and regional offices at Delhi and Mumbai.
As part of the validation process, the team also visited organizations to ascertain the safety oversight capability of DGCA with respect to implementation of CAP.
