Press Releases 2007

U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Announces the Launch of the U.S. India Joint Aviation Steering Committee with the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation

October 26, 2007

New Delhi -The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's Assistant Administrator for International Aviation James Filippatos announced today the launch of the U.S. India Joint Aviation Steering Committee with the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation.  The Joint Aviation Steering Committee will bring U.S. and Indian aviation officials together every six months to develop and prioritize an overall bilateral aviation work plan.

The Steering Committee will oversee the work of various working groups, which will focus initially on air traffic control, flight standards, airports, airworthiness and environmental issues.  Each working group will be chaired jointly by a senior executive from the FAA and MOCA and will develop and implement a work plan and report its progress regularly to the Steering Committee.

In addition to participating in the first meeting of the U.S.-India Joint Aviation Steering Committee, Assistant Administrator Filippatos participated in a meeting of the U.S. India Aviation Cooperation Program, a public-private partnership between the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. aviation companies and the Government of India.  The ACP announced the launch of its first program, an air traffic training exchange.

Funded by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the air traffic training exchange will concentrate on "high-density" air traffic operations at India's two busiest airports, New Delhi and Mumbai.  The project will be completed in four phases, permitting Indian and American air traffic control officials to work together.

Established in June 2007, the U.S.-India Aviation Cooperation Program provides a forum for communication between the Government of India and U.S. public and private sector companies in India and works directly with the Indian Government to support India's civil aviation sector modernization priorities.