Mumbai: The Federal Aviation Administration, the American aviation watchdog, is set to downgrade India's civil aviation sector to Category II from its current Category I status based on an audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The audit revealed serious conflict of interest in the DGCA, whose flight operations inspectors were found to be management pilots on the rolls of the very airlines they are supposed to monitor, top government officials told this newspaper.
While government sources said a formal announcement is expected next week, FAA refused comment. "We have no comment at this time," an FAA spokeswoman said in an email from Washington, DC.
The most crucial repercussion of the downgrade will be that carriers like Jet Airways and Air India will be barred from introducing new services to the US and will have to terminate any code-share agreements they have with American airlines.
This is because FAA does not support reciprocal code-share arrangements between air carriers of Category II States and American carriers. A senior FAA official said the downgrade will also mean carriers from India will not be allowed to introduce new services to the US till the DGCA takes corrective action.
21/01/14 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror
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The audit revealed serious conflict of interest in the DGCA, whose flight operations inspectors were found to be management pilots on the rolls of the very airlines they are supposed to monitor, top government officials told this newspaper.
While government sources said a formal announcement is expected next week, FAA refused comment. "We have no comment at this time," an FAA spokeswoman said in an email from Washington, DC.
The most crucial repercussion of the downgrade will be that carriers like Jet Airways and Air India will be barred from introducing new services to the US and will have to terminate any code-share agreements they have with American airlines.
This is because FAA does not support reciprocal code-share arrangements between air carriers of Category II States and American carriers. A senior FAA official said the downgrade will also mean carriers from India will not be allowed to introduce new services to the US till the DGCA takes corrective action.
21/01/14 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror
