The recent Ahmedabad-London flight accident has cast fresh light on India’s aviation regulations. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report highlights severe capacity gaps, with over 10,000 posts remaining vacant across the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The number of vacancies at DGCA has doubled since 2021. The outlay for capital in the aviation sector also being pruned at a time aviation network expands rapidly in the country.

Between 2021 and 2025, DGCA’s sanctioned strength rose from 1,233 to 1,692. Yet, only 878 positions have been filled as of March 2025, leaving over 800 vacancies unfilled.

BCAS, responsible for airport security, operates with the least number of 374 personnel, against a sanctioned strength of 598. AAI, which manages airport infrastructure and operations, has more than 9,500 vacancies, out of 25,730 sanctioned posts.

Regulatory oversight

The committee cautioned that such chronic understaffing could severely impact regulatory oversight and passenger safety. It noted, “chronic understaffing in these institutions could undermine safety, security, and service delivery standards, particularly as air traffic volumes continue to rise.”

Recruitment trends raise further concern. DGCA has filled only 49 posts over the past two years, despite its growing regulatory responsibilities. BCAS filled just five posts in 2025, a steep fall from 139 in 2024. AAI, which recruited 952 personnel in 2022, has hired only 15 this year.

According to an answer to a query in the Lok Sabha, AAI plans to recruit 1,098 executive-level personnel to bridge some of these staffing gaps, with appointments scheduled in three phases between August and November 2025.

Meanwhile, to offset delays in regular recruitment, both DGCA and BCAS have turned to contractual hiring. As of 2025, DGCA has engaged 107 consultants and flight operations inspectors (FOIs), while BCAS has employed 14 consultants to address manpower shortages.

Capital outlay

At the same time, the capital outlay for civil aviation has been drastically reduced, from ₹755.18 crore in 2023-24, to just ₹70 crore in 2025-26. The committee flagged an imbalance in how these funds are allocated. DGCA received ₹30 crore, nearly half the total.

BCAS and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) were allocated just ₹15 crore and ₹20 crore respectively. It expressed concern that accident investigation and aviation security remain underfunded, even as infrastructure grows under schemes like UDAN.

Launched in 2016, the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme aims to make air travel affordable and widespread by connecting remote regions to the national aviation map, especially in tier-II and tier-III cities. 

The UDAN scheme saw a 32 per cent budget cut this year, even though over 1.5 crore passengers have flown under it and 619 routes have been operationalised. The government plans to add 120 more destinations in the next decade.

With air traffic rising and the sector expanding into smaller cities, the committee has urged urgent staffing and fiscal corrections. Without these, it warned, expansion could soon outpace the system’s ability to regulate it.

Published on June 25, 2025