ICAO, the United Nations Aviation Organization, refutes SpiceJet’s assertion.

UN Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said that ICAO teams perform industry visits to check the efficacy of the civil aviation authority’s safety oversight, emphasizing that these visits to operators are not audits or inspections.

According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), its team that visited India from November 9 to 16 undertook industry visits to assess the efficacy of the country’s civil aviation authority’s safety monitoring and did not audit any airline.

The remark comes in the wake of a December 5 claim by low-cost carrier SpiceJet that interpreted a visit to its headquarters by an ICAO team as a full examination.

SpiceJet Aircraft stated in a statement last week, “SpiceJet operations, safety processes, and systems were found to be in order following an extensive audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization” (ICAO). SpiceJet’s qualifications have been fully established by the ICAO’s rigorous examination.”

SpiceJet was not mentioned in the ICAO statement, which was posted on Twitter by its communications officer William Raillant-Clark on Tuesday.

“From 9 to 16 November 2022, an ICAO Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) team from the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) visited India,” it stated. An ICVM’s goal is to validate progress in addressing results from prior USOAP efforts.”

“As part of an ICVM, ICAO teams perform industry visits to ensure that the civil aviation authority’s safety monitoring is effective. This will include visits to several operators. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) desires to stress that visits to operators are neither audits or inspections.”

To be sure, after a number of flight safety problems earlier this year, India’s aviation authority, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, limited SpiceJet services to half of their allowed schedule. The regulator also increased the carrier’s supervision, including audits and safety inspections.

The limits were eased in October when the DGCA approved SpiceJet’s winter schedule of 3,193 weekly departures from October 30 to March 25. This was 6.6% more than the 2,995 departures approved for the winter of 2021.

According to the civil aviation ministry, the ICAO team’s visit to India was to undertake an audit of the aviation regulator DGCA in areas such as law, organization, personal licensing, operations, airworthiness, and airport. Following the new audit, India’s effective implementation score jumped to 85.49%, moving the country to the 48th position, according to DGCA authorities.

The ICAO website states that the organization is not an international aviation authority. “Just as Interpol is not an international law enforcement agency, we cannot arbitrarily close or restrict a country’s airspace, close routes, or condemn airports or airlines for poor safety performance or customer service.”