In a major air-safety initiative, US and European regulators are seeking to make voluntary incident reports more useful by ending strict confidentiality protections that typically have kept some important details shrouded. Under the change, analysts will be able to fuse what used to be separate data streams regarding the same event to create a more complete picture of safety lapses, close calls and other potentially dangerous slip-ups. But some airlines and pilot groups remain wary of possible privacy violations. The aim is to combine details from different sources to create comprehensive narratives of incidents that can be shared industrywide to prevent accidents. Proponents say the shift, which hasn’t been announced by authorities or airlines, represents the biggest advance in proactive aviation-safety management in roughly a decade. <br/>
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JSW Group, the Indian conglomerate led by billionaire Savitri Jindal, applied under a subsidy program spearheaded by prime minister Narendra Modi to improve flight connectivity for small towns and villages. The group made a bid in an ongoing auction process which will allow companies asking for minimum govt subsidies to operate scheduled commercial flights to the country’s underutilised airstrips. Modi has promised tax breaks and waivers of landing and parking charges for some underused airfields in the world’s fastest growing aviation market, which is also among the costliest due to taxes and airport charges. The prime minister is trying connect India’s 450 airports and airstrips, mostly in smaller towns, by vowing to fund some of the airlines’ losses if they fly to such airports. <br/>
FAA, under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program, has granted Kenya a Category 1 rating, determining the East African country’s civil aviation authority meets ICAO safety standards. According to the FAA, the IASA program focuses on a country's ability, not the ability of individual air carriers, to adhere to international aviation safety standards and recommended practices. FAA approval came after an assessment earlier this month of safety oversight provided by Kenya’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation. It was the first time FAA assessed Kenya’s civil aviation authority for compliance with ICAO standards. “With the Category 1 rating, Kenyan air carriers that are able to secure the requisite FAA and DoT authority can establish service to the US and carry the code of US carriers,” FAA said. <br/>
A new law covering the regulation of the aviation sector in Thailand is set to go into effect around August or September. The law, which was approved by the Thai cabinet Feb 21 and is now being considered by the country’s parliament, is intended to strengthen safety regulation while also allowing foreign investment in Thai aviation companies. The legislation will replace the outdated 1954 Civil Aviation Act and, significantly, it will give greater impetus to the implementation of international safety standards by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand. “It’s going to help us speed up the implementation of ICAO standards,” CAAT director general Chula Sukmanop said Monday, explaining that the agency would have the power to directly issue ICAO-based regulations rather than having to submit each one for parliamentary approval. <br/>