India set to post record performance in ICAO air safety audit

“While the formal communication from ICAO will be received in due course of time, this is expected to have been India’s best performance till date,” a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

The audit was conducted in the areas of legislation, organization, personnel licensing, operations, airworthiness and aerodromes.

“As per the initial reports, the Mission was highly successful,” DGCA said. “India has done extremely well and our scores will see a substantial improvement putting us in the company of nations with best safety standards and oversight systems.”

The ICAO conducted the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) continuous monitoring approach, an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission during 9-16 Nov. As per procedure laid down by ICAO, the audit team presents its report to the headquarter team and draft report is made available to the state in about 90 days.

The ICAO had carried out a Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme for India in November 2017 and February 2018. India’s score had declined to 57.4% from 65.8% earlier. This had triggered a slew of measures by the civil aviation ministry and DGCA and the score was improved to 74%.

A better score in the ICAO audit will mean a robust aviation safety ecosystem in India and also helps airlines in their international expansion plans.

The Indian aviation sector is one of the fastest growing aviation sector in the world with a daily average air passenger traffic around 3.8-3.9 lakh air passengers currently.