The decision to downgrade the two main international hubs, dubbed as Gateways to India, was taken at the IFALPA Asia-Pacific regional conference held at Kuala Lumpur on November 4 and 5, 1998.

While the Mumbai international airport has been given two red markings, depicting critical deficiency, an orange marking has been given to Delhi, denoting deficient air safety. The overall Flight Information Regions (FIRs) on which data is collected for flights over the entire Indian region have also been given two red markings. In its report, the IFALPA has also criticised the new Air Traffic Control tower at Mumbai, which was built in total violation of the ICAO standards and subsequently led to the closure of the alternate runway 14/32.

Airport Director, RJ Treasurywala, when contacted, said that he was not aware of any such thing. ``I am not aware of any of the airports being downgraded for their deficient safety record. Your information is false,'' he said.

At a time when the government has made ambitious announcements to upgrade nine airports to international status, the above decision has exposed the poor air safety standards.

Apart from reflecting poorly on Indian aviation image globally, the decision is also likely to have an adverse impact on the national economy, as 1999 has been declared as the Visit India Year and tourism as an export industry by the Tourism ministry.

``The IFALPA move has belied the statistics and other safety records maintained by the AAI and the DGCA which would otherwise have us believe that everything is fine. This is the first time that any Indian airport has been included in the list of deficient airports, and it is a cause for concern,'' Capt M R Wadia, President of Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), who is also theIFALPA India director, told this newspaper.

The downgrading has meant that international airlines will now be wary of operating in India as insurance companies will increase the premium for any cover taken by them to fly into or even over India, Capt Wadia added.

The insurance premium is fixed differently for different airlines and also differs from country to country. For example, Quantas and Aviation in Australia have one of the best safety records in the world, and therefore insurance premia charged by the companies there is the lowest. However, when any Quantas flight operates over or into India, the premium on the aircraft and other legal aspects would go up substantially, especially now that two of the major airports here have been downgraded.

``If remedial measures are not taken, it will not be long before the airports will be further downgraded to black markings, having severe impact on the trade, tourism, industry in the country,'' said FIP director, Capt A M Kapur.