FAA's downgrade of India may have wider ramifications

In the last week or so, the biggest news item in Indian aviation has been the downgrade by the FAA of Indian airlines to Category II rating. Airlines from countries rated Category II can continue operations at current levels, under additional surveillance (inspections, etc) by FAA. However, they cannot expand or modify their existing services to the US.

When I'd written about this, I guessed that European aviation regulators may also want to review India's aviation ratings (relevant because Air India and Jet Airways have flights to Europe, and more so because of Air India's potential entry into Star Alliance). The potential domino effect was too much to ignore.

So it does turn out that the European Aviation Safety Agency is closely monitoring the situation, though they don't seem to have had any major concerns as of now. However, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (or CAAS) has taken cognisance of the FAA rating, and will soon be implementing more stringent checks on Indian airlines. As of now, Air India, Jet Airways, and Indigo have flights to Singapore, ex-India. These flights may be affected if the CAAS does investigate and find Indian airlines not fully fit to fly to Singapore. SpiceJet has a tie up with TigerAir, and so will likely escape any censure by the CAAS.

So if you have plans to travel to Singapore, on Indian carriers, you should watch this space.

One can't ignore the aspects that haven't been spoken of yet. One may well expect cascading effects of the downgrade, on flights that Indian airlines operate to other key Asian points, such as Hong Kong and Tokyo, and to the Middle East. I can't comment on those right now, so we'll have to wait and watch.


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