India’s aviation watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), will hire more employees over the next few months to strengthen its efforts for aviation surveillance. The agency has been keeping very busy lately, conducting checks and issuing directives, and feels it will need a larger workforce keeping India’s aviation trajectory in mind.
DGCA to hire 100+ employees
Since last year, the DGCA has conducted 177 surveillances, 497 spot checks, and 169-night surveillance on Indian airlines. Based on these checks, It took action against personnel in 21 instances of violations.
As India’s aviation sector expands, such surveillance will only increase in the future. No wonder the regulator plans to hire between 100 and 150 people in the next 6 to 8 months to keep up with the increasing workload.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Kumar explained,
“Aircraft is a complex sturdy machine with lakhs of components and its usage is very rigorous. India has a very young fleet and their flight dispatch reliability is one of the best in the world. Once in a while, technical snags are possible and a standard operating procedure as per globally approved norms is followed in case of any technical snag.”
Recent snags
Between July 1st, 2021 to June 30th, 2020, a total of 478 technical snag-related occurrences were reported in planes in India. Over the last several weeks and months, the DGCA has had to issue many directives and show-cause notices to get airlines to stick to safety procedures.
And recently, it explained the possible cause for the rise in such issues.
Kumar said that the reasons for the increasing number of technical snags appear to be COVID-related, which impacted airline operations due to lockdown and curtailed operations etc. He also said that there is a universal problem of workforce shortage after COVID, not just with one airline or one country, but globally. All this has put immense stress on airline operations leading to rising incidents.
Routine checks
Kumar does say, however, that most checks performed by the DGCA are routine, and even the incidents in most cases should not be treated as a larger threat to aviation safety. He said,
“There is a bit of hype and unnecessary hoopla around normal events. Several times, a rejected take-off or missed approach is actually a safety maneuver and enhances safety. Air travel is absolutely safe and our record is terrific.”
Kumar also explained that according to last year’s data, one aircraft sees 0.6 snags in a year. There may be 1-2 technical incidents across 6,000 flight movements in a day, and most situations are manageable if the pilot is alert and attentive.
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As airlines begin to scale operation post-COVID, new carriers joining the sector, and hundreds of planes scheduled to fly in India in the coming years, the DGCA will need all the resources it can get to keep Indian skies safe.
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Source: CNBC-TV18