EU to discuss India air safety in March

Downgrade of India's safety ranking of 'significant interest' says EU

Though its own findings have not raised any major concerns on aviation safety in India, the European Union (EU) will discuss the factors that led to the US’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgrading the country in an internal meeting next month.

Air India flies to London and Birmingham (UK), Paris (France) and Frankfurt (Germany) and plans to start services to Milan and Rome (Italy). Jet Airways flies to London and Brussels (Belgium) and will start a service to Paris in May.

On Friday, FAA downgraded India’s safety ranking from category-II from -I after an audit revealed deficiencies in oversight. FAA’s decision could lead to civil aviation authorities in other regions taking a tougher stance on the Asia country, experts said.

European Commission spokesperson Dale Kidd said: “Operations by Indian air carriers to and from EU are closely monitored through the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft programme (SAFA). The information so far received from the EU SAFA programme does not give rise to immediate or major concerns with regard to Indian aviation. At the next meeting of the EU Air Safety Committee in March, the commission will discuss within the EU Air Safety Committee the details of the latest developments in India, including the factors that led to this FAA downgrade.”

At present Air India flies to London, Birmingham, Paris and Frankfurt and has plans to start services to Milan and Rome. Jet Airways flies to London and Brussels and will start service to Paris in May.

"FAA’s downgrade typically has a domino effect. Safety regulators in EU (EASA), Singapore (CAAS), Japan (CAB), UAE (GCAA) etc may follow suit. This puts paid to Air India’s likely membership of the Star Alliance. Jet’s plans to go global through the Abu Dhabi hub may suffer. IndiGo and SpiceJet may not be able to expand services globally. Startup airlines like Tata-SIA and AirAsia may not be able to fly international even if the 5/20 Rule is abolished. This will impact airports, air cargo, tourism and hotel industry as well. All in all, a black day in India’s aviation history. Corrective measures need to be taken on a war footing”, said Amber Dubey, Partner and Head - Aerospace and Defense at global consultancy KPMG.