News Backgrounder
FAA downgrade unfair says India
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) decision to downgrade Indian aviation to Cagetory 2 was a body blow to an industry facing huge current and future losses. The impact of the decision will extend beyond the two Indian airlines that fly to the U.S.
March 1st 2014
Last minute efforts to avoid a U.S. safety downgrade at Air India and Jet Airways came to no avail last month. The U.S. said the country’s weakened safety oversight meant Air India and Jet Airways would face restrictions on their networks operating into the U.S after India was downgraded to Category 2 by the American regulatory authority. Read More » Immediately after the announcement was released, United Airlines suspended a marketing agreement with Mumbai-based Jet Airways.
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The downgrade, decided by the FAA’s International Safety Assessment program, puts India in the same category as Ghana, Curacao, Serbia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. It will prevent the two long-haul Indian controlled carriers from altering schedules, adding new destinations and changing aircraft on routes into the U.S. as well as subjecting the effected airlines to additional safety checks.
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) technical director, Martin Eran-Tasker, said it was important to note that the Indian downgrade did not reflect direct criticism of the practices and the safety performance of Indian carriers, but rather that it is questioning the Indian government’s regulatory oversight.
“It should be remembered that Indian carriers operating internationally are subject to close scrutiny by the regulatory authorities in the countries where they operate scheduled services and are therefore being judged against prevailing international standards on a daily basis,” said Eran-Tasker.
“Aviation is widely recognized as a key driver of economic and social development, supporting job creation in the travel and tourism sectors as well as logistics and supply chain management.
“Governments play an essential role in ensuring that the aviation industry operates with proper regulatory oversight, in accordance with recognized international standards governing safety, security and operational performance,” the AAPA technical director told Orient Aviation.
“As such, governments are responsible for ensuring they have the necessary legislative frameworks, supported by suitably trained staff to carry out the required regulatory oversight including licensing, safety audits, inspections and any necessary enforcement actions.“
“Governments must also make the necessary commitments and investments in resources and infrastructure to keep pace with the growing demand for air travel, with the global air travel market doubling in size every fifteen years, and even more rapidly in some faster growing markets in Asia and other emerging economies,” said Eran-Tasker.
India’s aviation minister, Ajit Singh, said the downgrade “was disappointing” and “surprising” and added that 95% of the issues raised by the FAA were resolved and the remainder would be settled by the end of this month.
Objective industry figures said the downgrade was all but inevitable despite the announcement by India’s Civil Aviation Directorate that it would hire 75 flight operations inspectors and train its airworthiness officers to check aircraft flown by non-scheduled carriers. Until now, India has been mainly getting by with airworthiness inspectors seconded from airlines.
State-owned Air India operates 21 flights a week to the U.S. while Jet Airways has seven. But these two airlines will not be the only ones affected by the downgrade. India-based aviation analysts said the decision will have “cascading effect” on the risk profile of all Indian airlines. It could result in higher lease rates, more stringent maintenance covenants and increased insurance premiums.
Other countries also may raise their own concerns about safety oversight in India with the prospect of an even greater impact on the operating costs of Indian airlines. Just as serious is the perception of Indian airlines amongst travelers.
Singh came out fighting with some incident and accident figures released by his ministry. He said the number of aviation accidents in India were far fewer than those in the U.S. from 2009 to 2012.
Nevertheless, the FAA said its assessment “signifies that India’s civil aviation safety oversight regime does not currently comply with the international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)”. The FAA said it had consulted extensively with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DCGA) and other relevant Indian government ministries during its evaluation, including consultations in India in September and early December, and meetings in Delhi during January.
“U.S. and Indian aviation officials have developed an important working relationship as our countries work to meet the challenges of ensuring international aviation safety. The FAA is available to work with the DGCA to help India regain its Category 1 rating,” said FAA administrator Michael Huerta.
After the downgrade was announced a spokesman for ICAO said that organization will not be auditing India this year, which would mean the country’s low rating with the organisaton will continue for at least another year and half, even if the civil aviation ministry manages to hire enough officers to inspect flight operations and train its staff by the end of this month.
After its most recent audit - completed on December 31, 2012 - the ICAO rated India’s DGCA at 57.1% for its standards compliance, well below the global average of 63.5%. “India has so far undertaken mitigation measures to resolve the safety deficiencies identified by the ICAO, but we will be continuing to monitor the progress to ensure these measures are effective,” said ICAO spokesman, Anthony Philbin. “With regard to a further audit, there is nothing planned in 2014 and our 2015 schedule has not been confirmed.”
In the meantime, the downgrade highlights deep systemic flaws in India’s aviation safety oversight. “The downgrade is a matter which rests solely at the government’s door,” said a report by consultancy CAPA.
“The FAA action will force one to recognize India’s regulatory shortcomings. Restoration of India’s aviation credibility is a serious goal… an urgent, comprehensive and independent White Paper on the state of aviation safety is critical to understand the depth of the problem. Only then, can appropriate long-term solutions be developed,” the consultancy wrote.
