Mexico regains highest FAA safety rating

The FAA has returned Mexico’s aviation safety rating to the highest level after more than two years of collaborative work.

With a return to Category 1 status, Mexican carriers can add new services and routes to the US, and US airlines can resume marketing and selling tickets with their names and designator codes on Mexican-operated flights.

In a statement on social media, Katie Thomson, deputy administrator, FAA said: “This took a lot of collaborative work between Mexico and the FAA team over the course of two years. The restored status will allow Mexican carriers to add new services and routes to the US and US carriers to market and code share with Mexican carriers. Great result for safety, great result for passengers.”

The FAA downgraded Mexico’s International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) rating to Category 2 in May 2021 after finding the country did not meet ICAO safety standards. In the period following, the FAA via technical assistance agreements helped Mexico’s Agencia Federal de Aviacion Civil resolve the safety issues that led to the downgrade. Including sending a team of aviation safety experts multiple times over the past two years to assist with the work.