Airports increased from 67 to 101 in 2014: Jayant Sinha

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Wednesday asserted that the number of airports in the country has increased from 67 to 101, while air traffic has doubled since 2014.

Addressing the media a day after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) retained India's aviation safety assessment at Category 1, Sinha said: "In 2014, when our government came to power, FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) had just downgraded India. Subsequent to that we have doubled air traffic now. We have increased the number of airports from 67 to 101 now, so there has been an exponential and dramatic increase in both air traffic and airports."

Speaking about safety and quality of the aviation sector, Sinha asserted that the government has immeasurably strengthened our systems. "It is a matter of tremendous satisfaction for us that two of the premier regulators in the world- the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the FAA have come to India, have conducted a very serious audit and FAA has once again maintained our category 1 rating. It has expressed satisfaction with the manner in which DGCA is regulating safety in India," he added.

Sinha also expressed hope that FAA category 1 rating will be followed by enhanced score by the ICAO and said, "As far as ICAO is concerned, our numbers have gone up to 74, after we address some of the licensing issues that they have pointed out which had resulted initially in lower score but once we addressed those issues our numbers have gone up to 74 per cent. Once we put in place the full licensing regime, our expectation is we will go up from a score of 74 to 82, which puts us well ahead of the global average and which continues to demonstrate our very strong safety record."

FAA conducted an audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in July this year to confirm India's adherence to the standards laid down by ICAO and oversight of Indian airlines.

During consultations held with FAA in early November, DGCA presented the actions taken to address the findings of the July 2018 audit.

FAA is an operating mode of the U.S. Department of Transportation.