India’s air safety protocols and executions have improved drastically over the years, as validated by the findings of a specialized agency of the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization or ICAO.
The UN watchdog has upgraded India’s ranking in terms of aviation safety to the 48th position, jumping past the rankings of countries like China, Turkey and even Israel. The rankings are a result of a detailed audit held by the UN watchdog last month in November 2022.
Aviation Safety Improves
The audit conducted by ICAO, called the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, is done to check whether countries are working towards effectively implementing key safety elements regarding aviation safety.
According to the ICAO ranking, India now stands at the 48th position in the global aviation safety ranking, which is its highest until now.
According to the director general of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Arun Kumar, it is a challenge to maintain the new found status. However, the organization has assured all of its stakeholders that it will leave no stone unturned to further improve India’s ranking.
The audit was conducted last month from Nov 9-16, informed Arun Kumar, and the areas under consideration during the audit included legislation, organisation, personal licensing, operations, airworthiness and aerodrome.
Airtravel Becomes Safer In India
“To check if rules were being followed, the team also visited Delhi airport, SpiceJet, a charter operator, air traffic control, communication navigation and surveillance,” Kumar said.
In terms of effective implementation of key safety elements, India’s positioning as per the ICAO norms has improved to 85.49%, which is much higher than other major countries.
Just four years ago, i.e., ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s ranking on the ICAO charts was more than 100 at the 102nd position. As per the 2018 Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, India’s performance was at 69.95%.
In terms of civil aviation organisation, India’s score has zoomed from 63.64% to 72.73%, from 25.58% to 84.71% in personnel licensing and training, from 80.34% to 97.44% in aircraft operations and from 90.20% to 97.06% in airworthiness of aircraft.
With the country’s ranking now improving on international air safety norms and indexes, it means that India’s air safety processes have far improved, paving in way for Indian carriers to better and faster expand to overseas markets as permissions for new services are easier to get.