India's aviation safety ranking was on Wednesday upgraded to Category-1 by US aviation watchdog Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a move that could pave the way for domestic airlines to expand their services to that country.

The upgradation, which saw restoration of the safety ranking, came more than 14 months after it was downgraded to Category-2 following the failure of aviation regulator DGCA to meet the international safety norms during two safety audits by FAA.

Announcing the upgrade here today after a meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Ganapathi Raju, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said that India has "worked hard" to get back the status.

"I enjoyed a very productive series of meetings with Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju. I want to congratulate India on achieving Category-1 status in their civil aviation system," Foxx told reporters after the meeting."This is a big news because India has worked very hard over the last one year to achieve that status," he said. US encourages India to continue sustaining that status, Foxx said.

FAA had downgraded India's aviation safety ranking, bringing it below Pakistan and on par with countries like Ghana, Barbados and Bangladesh in January last year after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation failed to meet the safety standards set by the UN body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

"We are happy about restoration of status. It speaks well about our aviation safety and security and that we have come up to ICAO standards. It generates opportunities for our airlines and we hope they will harness them," Raju said. He said DGCA now needs to continuously work to maintain and keep those standards.

Raju said that India's global air connectivity had got affected due to the safety downgrade, adding that India "should have a safety record and should be security conscious."

Asked about any request from Indian Airlines to expand in the US market, Raju said "now it will make sense if they start asking." He said that India had met many parameters to achieve back the upgrade and that one of the basic areas of concern was the deployment of flight operations instructors, which has now been taken care of.

"We hope we will retain it and we have to work hard to do maintain it," he said.