Amid outstanding growth projections India significantly ramps up aviation safety headcount

It’s perhaps a sign of things to come. Even as the Indian Railways has drawn flak for not filling up critical positions for better upkeep of its infrastructure in the aftermath of the Balasore triple-train mishap, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has been on a hiring spree to make air travel safer.

Be it the induction of new air traffic control officers (ATCOs) in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) or additional personnel in regulatory bodies such as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA), all have witnessed unparalleled hiring since financial year 2014-15 (FY15).

“At this time of an increase in aircraft and airports, we also need to ramp up the institutional framework,” clarified Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, during a briefing on nine years of the National Democratic Alliance government in New Delhi Wednesday.

Currently estimated to be the fastest-growing aviation market globally, India is expected to fly 450 million passengers from over 200 airports by 2030, a growth of 300 per cent over the current 145 million passengers. Furthermore, major home-grown carriers are projected to place mega orders for an additional 1,400 aircraft over the next five years.

“If we talk about air traffic controllers (ATCOs) today, there has been an increase of 100 per cent in their numbers in the last nine years,” stated Scindia.

While the country had only 2,305 ATCOs in FY14, that number has been jumped to 4,554, an increase of nearly 100 per cent. Moreover, MoCA recently obtained the Ministry of Finance’s clearance for the hiring of another 756 ATCOS, he informed.

Similarly, the aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) saw its staff strength climb to 1,703 from 1,252 during the same period, an increase of 36 per cent.

But it is the aviation security regulator BCAS that has seen the maximum growth in manpower. In the past nine years, the number of officers in its ranks swelled to 595 from 191 in FY14, a 212 per cent increase.

The number of officers working with the airport regulator AERA has also increased over 46 per cent. “We only had 20 officers working under AERA; we have increased their numbers to 32 to facilitate early disposal of cases,” emphasised Scindia.

The period had also seen a marked increase in the number of safety checks stipulated by the regulators.

“Safety is another area where we are trying to set high benchmarks. In 2013, only 1,982 safety checks used to be performed in a year. We have enhanced that number to 4,500 safety checks annually. This is an increase of 120 per cent,” averred Scindia.

As a result of such initiatives, the country was not only able to reclaim but also retain the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Category-1 safety rating after being downgraded to Category-2 status in 2014, said Scindia.

The period also saw the country ascend the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s rankings to the 47th spot from 102nd earlier, with the country’s score effectively improving by 85 per cent.