High ICAO rankings to help domestic airlines expand globally: Centre

India is among the top 50 countries with best aviation safety in the latest ICAO rankings and the major break through will help domestic airlines in international expansion, the government said on Sunday.

In the rankings by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), India is now at the 48th position, a "quantum leap" from the 102nd rank it had in 2018.

In a series of tweets, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said the ICAO has given the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) the highest Effective Implementation (EI) score of 85.49 per cent.

"India is now among the top 50 countries with best aviation safety according to the latest @icao rankings. This major break through will also help Indian airlines to expand internationally," it said.

The rankings are for 187 countries and assessments were done at different points of time.

Under its Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach, an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) was undertaken from November 9 to 16.

With a score of 85.49 per cent each, India and Georgia are at the 48th position. Neighbouring Pakistan is at the 100th spot with a score of 70.39 per cent.

The rankings are topped by Singapore with a score of 99.69 per cent. It is followed by the UAE at the second position with a score of 98.8 per cent and the Republic of Korea is at the third place (98.24 per cent).

Others in the top ten are France (4th; 96.42 per cent), Iceland (5th; 95.73 per cent), Australia (6th; 95.04 per cent), Canada (7th; 94.95 per cent), Brazil (8th; 94.72 per cent), Ireland (9th; 94.6 per cent) and Chile (10th; 93.9 per cent), as per the DGCA officials.