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'Did not audit airline': UN aviation agency ICAO rebuts SpiceJet claim
UN aviation agency ICAO said it did conduct industry visits to verify the effectiveness of the Indian civil aviation authority’s safety oversight but stressed it did not audit airline operators.
NEW DELHI: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on Tuesday said that a team that visited India between November 9 and November 16 made industry visits to verify the effectiveness of the country’s civil aviation authority’s safety oversight, but stressed that it did not audit any airline.
The statement comes against the backdrop of a claim by low-cost carrier SpiceJet on December 5 that claimed a visit to its head office by a visiting ICAO team as an 'exhaustive audit'.
In its statement last week, the airline said: "SpiceJet operations, safety processes and systems have been found to be in order following an exhaustive audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The comprehensive audit by ICAO firmly establishes SpiceJet’s credentials."
The ICAO responded via a statement put out on Twitter by its communications officer William Raillant-Clark, who did not name SpiceJet.
"ICAO’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) team performed an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) to India from 9 to 16 November 2022. The objective of an ICVM is to validate progress in addressing the findings from previous USOAP activities," Raillant-Clark wrote.
"As part of an ICVM, ICAO teams conduct industry visits to verify the effectiveness of the civil aviation authority’s safety oversight. This will include visits to multiple operators. ICAO wishes to clarify that visits to operators are not audits or inspections at all," he stressed.
SpiceJet has not yet responded to the ICAO's clarification.
In July SpiceJet services were capped at half its approved schedule by India’s aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation after a string of air safety incidents in the summer. The regulator also put the carrier under enhanced surveillance comprising audits and safety checks.
The restrictions were relaxed in October when DGCA approved SpiceJet’s winter schedule of 3,193 departures per week, starting from October 30 till March 25. This was 6.6% higher than the 2,995 departures cleared in the winter of 2021
The ICAO team’s visit to India, according to the civil aviation ministry, was to conduct an audit of the aviation regulator DGCA in areas including legislation, organisation, personal licensing, operations, airworthiness and aerodrome.
DGCA officials later said India’s effective implementation score increased to 85.49% following the fresh audit and that its rank had improved to 48.
According to the ICAO website, the aviation agency is not an international aviation regulator. "… just as Interpol is not an international police force, we cannot arbitrarily close or restrict a country’s airspace, shut down routes, or condemn airports or airlines for poor safety performance or customer service."
