FAA downgrades India's aviation safety ranking

This means Indian carries cannot increase flights to US, face additional checks

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded India's aviation safety ranking, which means Indian carriers cannot increase flights to the United States and face additional checks for existing flights, the Mint newspaper reported, citing the Indian aviation regulator.

The FAA has downgraded India to Category 2 from Category 1, Prabhat Kumar, India's director general of civil aviation, was quoted by the paper as saying.

Jet Airways and state-run Air India operate flights from India to the United States.

Kumar could not be reached for comment by Reuters.