USIBC Hails Signing of U.S.-India Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement

NEW DELHI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The U.S.-India Business Council hails the recent signing of the U.S.-India Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA), which will pave the way for greater bilateral trade in aviation equipment and systems, improve passenger safety, and greatly expand U.S. and Indian civil aviation industries.

“The BASA, by providing a framework under which we can develop reciprocal acceptances of certain aviation articles, stands to promote the burgeoning civil aviation partnership emerging between our two countries”

Coinciding with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India for the second round of the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, J Randolph Babbitt, Administrator of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and Nasim Zaidi, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, signed on July 18^th this major milestone which will facilitate reciprocal airworthiness certification in the civil aviation sector.

USIBC’s policy advocacy priority for the civil aviation sector has been for both countries to sign a BASA. “BASA will improve passenger safety and therefore caps the success of the 2005 Open Skies Agreement, which opens more routes, includes more airlines, and greatly improves the ability for companies to engage in commerce between the U.S. and India. This accord creates a safer, more positive environment for travel, resulting in a win-win situation for both economies,” said USIBC President Ron Somers.

USIBC and U.S. industry have long-believed that a BASA between both countries would help India upgrade its technology to world-class standards and harmonize its regulatory and monitoring systems with international best practices. BASA demonstrates that India has the capacity to develop FAA certifiable aircraft articles and /or appliances.

“The BASA, by providing a framework under which we can develop reciprocal acceptances of certain aviation articles, stands to promote the burgeoning civil aviation partnership emerging between our two countries,” noted Administrator Babbitt immediately following the signing at USIBC’s roundtable discussion on “Building 21^st Century Infrastructure,” held on July 19^th in New Delhi.

BASA allows aviation authorities such as the FAA and the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to certify aeronautical products and systems to be introduced in American and Indian markets, respectively. It will also drastically reduce maintenance, repair, and operation (MRO) costs associated with compliance and foreign certification approval processes. This cost reduction will directly benefit passengers and industry alike.

The signing of BASA comes after an FAA team visited DGCA headquarters in New Delhi and performed a complete technical assessment and shadow certification procedure, selecting the Goodrich life raft, which was designed, sourced, and built at the Goodrich facility in Bengaluru, India under the oversight of the DGCA. Goodrich’s manufacturing and design center in Bengaluru is also a Tier-1 supplier to Boeing, assembling observer seats and manufacturing evacuation systems for a large portion of Boeing aircraft. BASA now allows Goodrich (India) to get authority from the DGCA to directly ship to customers, creating greater efficiencies of commerce, generating jobs, and lowering certification and transaction costs. Both Goodrich and Boeing are USIBC member companies.

BASA enhances the case for further investment in the civil aviation industry and has far reaching implications for both Indian and U.S. industry. The next stage for both governments is to sign the Implementation Procedures for Airworthiness (IPA) which will provide for airworthiness technical cooperation between FAA and its counterpart in India. The IPA provides guidelines related to specific activities such as approvals for design, repair data, production, and export airworthiness, as well as post design activities and other areas of technical cooperation.

The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), chaired by Harold “Terry” McGraw III, Chairman, CEO and President of The McGraw-Hill Companies, is the premier business advocacy organization formed in 1975 by the governments of India and the United States to advance U.S.-India commercial ties. USIBC is comprised of nearly 400 of the top global companies doing business between the United States and India.