The Federal Aviation Administration in the United States downgrading India’s aviation safety ranking from Category I to Category II should not come as a surprise because in 2009 audit FAA had nudged India on the extreme shortage of safety inspectors with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and in subsequent audits also they had reminded the India government said Rajan Mehra, MD, Universal Aviation USA, Former Head - Qatar Airways, Finnair, Asiana Airlines in an interview with Shereen Bhan on CNBC-TV18.
"It is a sad day for Indian aviation. It turns the clock back by several months and it is more so regrettable because Indo-US aviation relations were at an all-time high," said Mehra.
According to him, it is bound to not only impact Air India and Jet Airways but also future projects like Tata-SIA and other airlines that are planning to fly to US. They will have to slowdown their plans he said.
Also the code sharing pacts will be impacted because the FAA strictly goes by its guidelines. "I would be surprised if it didn’t affect the Jet-United alliance," said Mehra.
Below are the excerpts Rajan Mehra, MD, Universal Aviation USA, Former Head - Qatar Airways, Finnair, Asiana Airlines interview with Shereen Bhan on CNBC-TV18.
Shereen: How bad is this going to be as far as Indian carriers operating to the US are concerned specifically Air India?
A: It is a sad day for Indian aviation. It turns the clock back by several months and it is more so regrettable because Indo-US aviation relations were at an all time high.
In October Indo-US summer it was attended by almost all the top government leaders of the US aviation as well as from the Indian side by the secretary civil aviation, by the DGCA, by the Airport Authority Director. So, the timing is extremely bad. It makes sure that future projects like the Tata-SIA and other airlines that are planning to go to the US have to slowdown and out on the backburner some of their plans. It is extremely unfortunate.
It will impact Air India, it will impact Jet Airways. Although Jet has an alliance with United Airlines already it would be very interesting to see what happens next.
Shereen: As far as the FAA is concerned it says that code sharing pacts will be impacted because of this downgrade to Category-II. However when we put that question to the civil aviation minister he said that he doesn’t believe code sharing pacts will be impacted at all. What is your take?
A: I think it will be impacted. The FAA goes strictly by its guidelines and even if they wanted to I am not too sure they would make an exception in the case of Jet Airways. It would be interesting to see what happens but I would be surprised if it didn’t affect the Jet-United alliance.
Shereen: The real victim here is going to be Air India because they are the ones operating 28 flights from India to the US. Jet has 7. You mentioned Tata-SIA and all of that but they haven’t even gotten started and Ajit Singh believes that we will be compliant by March or at least we hope to be compliant by March. However the real victim and the real tragedy here is for Air India, is it not?
A: The civil aviation minister is so positive that six months is all it needs. However we must not forget that this has been going on since 2009. In the 2009 audit, FAA had nudged India on the extreme shortage of safety inspectors with the DGCA and in subsequent audits that they did they reminded the India government. It is not something which has come out of the blue.
In the last five years the government has not really been able to put its act together. They have not been able to hire the safety inspectors that were required by DGCA. So, to imagine that all this would happen in the next six months I think it is extremely optimistic.
KC Singh, Former Secretary at The External Affairs Ministry also spoke on impact on outlook for Indian aviation sector . For more click on the videos.
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