Education
22 Jul, 2025
Daniel Rodriguez
In a bid to strengthen aviation safety regulator DGCA, 190 vacancies will be filled within this year effectively halving the number of positions lying unoccupied.
Minister for Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu told the Rajya Sabha on Monday (July 21, 2025) that 190 appointments would be made to the DGCA within this year. Officials said that as of now there were 410 positions lying vacant out of the total sanctioned 1063 positions — a shortfall of 38% — and the new appointments would fill this gap.
In response to a question from BJP MP Ashok Chavan on how the government was planning to fill “50%” vacancies at the DGCA, the Minister replied that the vacancies had emerged because of the Centre’s effort to expand the DGCA and create new posts over the past few years, keeping in mind the growth of aviation, including airports and fleet expansion by airlines.
“We recommended that we need to create more posts so that surveillance is strong,” Mr. Naidu told the Rajya Sabha.
The Minister said the process was a rigorous one as it involves selection of candidates for very niche and technical posts, while there was only a limited pool of pilots, engineers and subject matter experts. He added that efforts were on to ensure 90% of the vacancies were filled.
A senior official of the DGCA said that appointments were likely by October, and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had already carried out interviews for Class 1 officers. The new appointments would help fill up positions in the flight safety and airworthiness departments. Of the remaining vacancies, 76 were due to delays in deputation from the Indian Air Force as well as 24 due to positions that had opened up after internal promotions.
The issue of a large number of vacancies was also taken up by during two separate meetings earlier this month on the issue of aviation safety called by the Public Accounts Committee headed by Congress MP K.C. Venugopal as well as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture, chaired by Janata Dal-United (JD-U) MP Sanjay Jha.
The meetings in the aftermath of the Air India June 12 crash saw various industry stakeholders take part, including Air India CEO Campbell Wilson, Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh, representatives from IndiGo and representatives from various airports, the DGCA, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Aviation Accident Investigation Bureau, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the Airports Authority of India.