ICAO’s audit of SpiceJet boosts India’s global safety rankings

Budget carrier SpiceJet has again found itself in the middle of a safety audit but this time for all the right reasons. The airline’s audit by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, resulted in a quantum jump for India’s aviation safety ranking.

For the first time ever, India has broken into the top 50 with its aviation safety ranking jumping to 48th position from its 102nd rank four years ago. India is now ahead of countries like China (49), Israel (50) and Turkey (54).

“The ICAO audit is the benchmark of safety. We are proud that our safety culture, systems, processes and operations have been found to be at par with the global best practices and safety standards,” said Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet. “SpiceJet is truly humbled at playing a role in India achieving the highest ever safety ranking and making it to the top 50 nations in terms of ICAO aviation safety audit scores,” he said.

On 14 November, 2022, the ICAO Auditing Committee visited SpiceJet headquarters, from where all flights are controlled, and the airline’s flight dispatch offices at Delhi Airport. They audited and reviewed the various flight critical functions and operational areas such as flight planning, weather assessment, route planning, aircraft serviceability, operations to critical airports, pilot rostering systems, cabin safety procedures etc.

Notably, SpiceJet was the only scheduled Indian airline to undergo validation checks by ICAO in this audit.

Many in the industry credit Chairman Ajay Singh for taking some bold steps to improve safety which have finally paid dividends with ICAO acknowledging that the airline’s operations and safety were strong and at par with the global best practices and safety standards processes.

“I am happy that our hard work has been acknowledged. We have made sure that we take nothing for granted when it comes to safety and this audit is a testament to the highest standard of safety followed by SpiceJet,” he said.