With around 45 days left for the US aviation regulator to assess India’s aviation safety oversight system, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is making a final push to inspect airlines and address issues, if any.
But why does the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) assessment matter, and what could be at stake for India?
What does the FAA assess?
The FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme assesses the country’s civil aviation regulator, rather than individual airlines. It examines whether the regulator has the laws, technical expertise, trained personnel, procedures and resources needed to effectively oversee airlines in accordance with standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The assessment covers eight critical areas, including aviation legislation, operating regulations, technical personnel and training, licensing and certification, surveillance of airlines and resolution of safety concerns.
This is why the DGCA’s intensive inspections of airlines ahead of the November 16-20 assessment are significant. The regulator needs to demonstrate that it complies with international safety standards by keeping up with required rules, monitoring airlines, identifying deficiencies, requiring corrective action and following up on those findings.
What do Category 1 and Category 2 mean?
{{/usCountry}}This is why the DGCA’s intensive inspections of airlines ahead of the November 16-20 assessment are significant. The regulator needs to demonstrate that it complies with international safety standards by keeping up with required rules, monitoring airlines, identifying deficiencies, requiring corrective action and following up on those findings.
What do Category 1 and Category 2 mean?
{{/usCountry}}The FAA has two ratings under the IASA programme. Category 1 means the country’s civil aviation authority complies with ICAO safety standards in licensing and overseeing air carriers. Category 2 means the authority does not provide safety oversight in accordance with those standards.
Why is Category 1 important?
India currently has Category 1 status, which means the FAA has determined that the DGCA complies with ICAO safety-oversight standards. The status has direct implications for Indian airlines operating to the US. Category 1 allows Indian carriers to add flights to the US using their own aircraft and carry the codes of US carriers on their operations, subject to other regulatory requirements.
India first achieved Category 1 status in 1997. However, it was downgraded to Category 2 in January 2014 after a December 2012 FAA assessment identified deficiencies in the DGCA’s safety oversight.
What happened the last time India was downgraded?
The concerns at the time primarily related to the DGCA’s ability to effectively oversee airlines, including an insufficient number of full-time flight operations inspectors. Indian government records later identified the shortage of flight operations inspectors as the main finding leading to the downgrade.
The consequences were significant. Indian airlines could continue their existing US operations, but could not expand or change their services to the US, and their operations were subjected to heightened FAA surveillance.
India regained Category 1 in April 2015 after addressing the FAA’s concerns and undergoing a reassessment. It retained Category 1 in the next FAA assessment in 2021.
Could that happen again?
A Category 2 finding is possible if the FAA determines that India’s safety oversight does not comply with ICAO standards. According to the FAA, this can happen when a regulator lacks adequate technical expertise or resources, trained personnel, inspector guidance, or sufficient documentation and surveillance of airlines.
The DGCA has already conducted two rounds of inspections, particularly focusing on Air India and IndiGo, with officials saying serious observations were found and communicated to the airlines for corrective action. A final round covering all airlines is now planned before the FAA team arrives.
What is at stake?
A poor assessment could have consequences beyond the DGCA. While a Category 2 finding does not mean Indian airlines have been declared unsafe, it can restrict their ability to expand services to the US and lead to greater FAA oversight. It could also affect codeshare arrangements with US airlines.
For the DGCA, the November assessment will therefore be a test of whether its surveillance, enforcement, staffing and safety oversight systems are robust enough to meet international standards and whether the improvements made after the 2014 downgrade have been sustained.