FAA gives India’s aviation sector high mark

The federal agency said India met its ICAO safety standards and has now received a Category 1 rating.    The U.S. Transportation Department’s Federal Aviation Administration said India complies with international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and has been granted a Category 1 rating under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program.  
   The announcement was made Wednesday during a meeting between Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and India’s Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju in New Delhi.
   A Category 1 rating permits India’s air carriers to add flights to the United States using their own planes and carry the code of U.S. carriers on their operations. 
   India first achieved a Category 1 rating in August 1997. A December 2012 FAA audit, however, identified some deficiencies in India’s civil aviation sector from ICAO-set global standards for safety oversight, which led to a Category 2 designation by U.S. regulators.  
   To maintain a Category 1 rating, a country must maintain safety oversight standards in line with ICAO, the United Nations’ technical agency for international civil aviation that establishes international standards and recommended practices for government oversight, airports, aircraft operations and maintenance, the FAA said.
   “A Category 2 rating means a country either lacks laws or regulations necessary to oversee air carriers in accordance with the minimum international civil aviation standards, or that its civil aviation authority – the equivalent to the FAA for civil aviation safety matters – is deficient in one or more areas of safety oversight, such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping, or inspection procedures and enforcement,” the agency explained.