The agency quoted a US official. On January 31 last year, the FAA had lowered India's safety ranking to Category-II from Category-I which the country had been holding since 1997.
FAA downgraded India to a Category II market citing two key concerns: lack of training for DGCA officials and shortage of full-time flight operations inspectors on the regulator's rolls. If the country continues to remain there, it could hamper Indian airlines' services to the US and other countries that follow FAA standards, as well as their ability to form codeshare tie-ups with foreign carriers.
In an email response to ET's queries, FAA said non-compliance with International Civil Aviation Organisation standards could lead to continuation of the Category II rating. "FAA has no comment about the DGCA position. Non-compliance with ICAO standards puts a country in Category II," it said.
Notably, an ICAO audit in 2010 had also raised concerns over DGCA's technical expertise. "Not just the director-general but also various officials in other departments are hired through the normal government recruitment procedure and are not mandated to have a technical background," said the DGCA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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