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Staff shortages in key aviation agencies: 823 vacancies in DGCA, 230 in BCAS and 3,238 in AAI
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has said that its key agencies, like the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Airports Authority of India, have been struggling with short staff.
In a reply during the monsoon session at the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State Murlidhar Mohol said that the DGCA has 823 vacancies, BCAS has had 230, and AAI has 3,238.
'Some positions have been created in the last couple of years: 441 posts, including 426 technical posts, have been created between 2022 and 2024, 84 operational posts were created in restructuring of BCAS in 2024, and 840 posts of air traffic controllers have been created recently,' he said.
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Mohol noted that in view of the current expansion plans of civil aviation, the ministry has created additional posts have been created in DGCA, BCAS and AAI.
'The shortfall has not impacted the functioning of these organisations. Further, all methods of recruitment are pursued vigorously in order to ensure timely and continuous availability of requisite manpower,' he said.
'To meet requirements in the interregnum due to vacancies arising from reasons like inadequate response to advertisements, non-joining of selected candidates, persons with insufficient service in the feeder cadre for promotion, insufficient response to deputation posts, efforts are made to recruit persons through short-term contractual hiring,' the minister added.
5 security breaches in 6 months
Air India received nine show-cause notices from the government in the past six months over five identified safety violations, the MoS said in Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Answering a question about the Air India Dreamliner 787 crash on June 12 that killed 260 people, MoS Mohol stated that the government has not observed an adverse trend in the reliability reports of the aircraft over the last six months.
The airline, particularly its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, has come under intense scrutiny after a preliminary report by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) showed that a cutoff to the fuel switches caused the crash.
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