 "Air travel, Flight, Aviation")
The US aviation watchdog, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has kept India's Category 1 status unchanged under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme, The Economic Times (ET) reported.
Category 1 status means that airlines of the country concerned can operate and expand their services to destinations in the US and can codeshare with US carriers.
The FAA has devised a mechanism under its IASA programme that determines if a country's airlines that want to use American airspace for operations are compliant with safety standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Speaking on the subject, DGCA said, "Based on the positive outcomes of the assessment and follow-ups, FAA informed DGCA on April 12, 2023, that India meets international standards for aviation safety oversight of the Chicago Convention & its Annexes and continues to retain FAA IASA Category 1 status, which was last assessed in July 2018."
The continuation of the highest standard by the FAA comes as good news for Indian airlines. The Tata group intends to increase its operations on the India-US routes, so this development should come as a relief to it, the report said.
In 2014, the FAA downgraded India's safety ratings. This resulted in Indian airlines like Air India and Jet Airways facing multiple restrictions, which involved additional checks. Moreover, the airlines did not have access to commercial tie-ups like code-sharing arrangements with US airlines, ET reported.
The FAA sent a five-member team in October to audit safety guidelines, which included checking licensing of personnel and determining if they were fit to fly.
