The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has spared the government a major embarrassment by meeting 60 per cent of the critical conditions laid down by the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in an assessment it conducted in March 2009. Had it not met these conditions, the US would have curtailed flights from India and imposed more stringent security checks.

A DGCA official said that the regulator had overcome in about two months 54 of the 89 shortcomings pointed out by the FAA. “The DGCA has now also constituted a Board of Aviation Safety under the chairmanship of the director general to take periodic stock of safety and security developments,” the official told The Indian Express.

The FAA team is scheduled to visit India in June for another inspection. Though the DGCA expects to fulfill all the conditions by then, it has decided to buy more time from the FAA and push the deadline to July. Earlier, the regulator was hauled up by the civil aviation ministry, which had to request the external affairs ministry to firefight on its behalf with the American counterpart.

After conducting an on-site assessment, the FAA downgrades ratings of a country if it fails to meet minimum safety oversight standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation. A lower rating prohibits airlines from expanding their US routes and from changing the type or increasing the number of aircraft. The downgrade can also affect cargo traffic with that country as well as investment inflows.

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