DGCA writes to airlines to relieve hired pilots

FAA, in safety audits conducted in Sept, Dec last year, had expressed severe concerns over the lack of full-time FOIs in the DGCA and had subsequently downgraded India

Concerned about the paucity of pilots to carry out safety inspections, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has sent letters to airlines to relieve, on lien, all full-time 29 flight operations inspectors (FOIs), hired by the regulator in March.

The DGCA has written the letter at a time when only nine of the 29 hired pilots have joined them. An official in the DGCA told Business Standard: “We are supposed to start the training programme for FOIs from May 1. Nine pilots have joined. We have finalised the curriculum for the training. If four-five pilots come, we will start as scheduled.”

Hiring of full-time FOIs and their recruitment and the training are crucial for India to regain the Category-I status in safety rankings by the US regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The downgrade has barred Indian airlines from expanding operations to the US and impacted code-share arrangements with American counterparts. FAA, in safety audits conducted in September and December last year, had expressed severe concerns over the lack of full-time FOIs in the DGCA and had downgraded India to Category-II of safety rankings, clubbing it with Zimbabwe and Indonesia.

Earlier, DGCA did not have any regular FOIs. Pilots and commanders were seconded from scheduled airlines to carry out these functions. These commanders and pilots were paid by the respective airlines and not by the DGCA. Due to such a practice, there were possibilities of conflict of interest, pointed out by FAA. The DGCA had not been able to hire full-time FOIs due to its inability to pay them market-determined salaries.

To address the concerns raised by FAA, the government has sanctioned the creation of 75 posts in the DGCA to recruit pilots at market-determined salaries. In the first round of interviews, the regulator, with six FOIs, could hire 29 pilots for the 75 posts.

“We are trying to address their (pilots’) concerns. The FOIs would be on our payroll for three years. We have written to the airlines to ensure their seniority and promotions do not get affected during the period on deputation,” added the official.

Applications for the second round of hiring are set to close on Wednesday, with further recruitment set after interviews. Over three months, the DGCA has been working overtime to fast-track processes and meet requirements pointed out by the FAA. The regulator is working towards filing its final progress report by June. After the filing, FAA would issue dates for a fresh audit for a possible upgrade.