Aviation regulator DGCA carries out 4,378 surveillance activities this year

Aviation regulator DGCA on Thursday said it has carried out 4,378 surveillance activities so far this year as part of its safety oversight responsibilities.

This year, the watchdog has so far issued air operator permits for scheduled air transport service to three operators -- GSEC Monarch and Deccan Aviation (India One Air) on June 24, SNV Aviation Pvt Ltd (Akasa Air) on July 7 and Quikjet Cargo Airlines Pvt Ltd (Quikjet) on December 12.

In a statement mentioning about its performance in 2022, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also said that ICAO's Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM) of India was conducted in November.

"As a result, the Effective Implementation score of India has risen from previous 69.95 per cent to 85.49 per cent, thereby changing India's Safety Oversight ranking from 102 to 48 among the 193 contracting states," it said.

This is also the highest ever rank for India in the Indian Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) aviation safety rankings.

"As part of its safety oversight responsibilities, DGCA has undertaken 4,378 surveillance activities (3,013 planned and 1,365 unplanned) up to 22nd December, 2022, which is the highest ever number of surveillance activities undertaken during a year... the activities include safety audits, ramp inspections, spot checks, night surveillance," the statement said.

Apart from three air operator permit for scheduled services, the regulator has issued 14 air operator permits to entities for undertaking non-scheduled air transport.

According to the statement, new aerodrome licences were issued for Deoghar, Hollongi, Jeypore and new Goa airports this year.

Among other activities, DGCA issued/renewed 17,220 flight crew licences through the single window digital platform of eGCA and the number of CPLs (Commercial Pilot Licences) issued during the year has been the highest in the last decade at 1,131.

The total number of licences/ratings issued this year touched 9,560.

"A new process for auto-filling of pilot's e-logbook by way of integration of Aircraft System data (ACARS/AIMS/ARMS) of scheduled airline operators with eGCA has been initiated in 2022.

"Apart from fetching real time pilots flying hours with accuracy, with minimised manual intervention, this will help in timely submission of applications by the pilots for the issuance, renewal and endorsement of licences by removal of multi-layer data-validation steps. While IndiGo has implemented the same, other scheduled airlines are expected to implement in next two months," the statement said.

In May, the regulator issued type certificate to HINDUSTAN 228. "HINDUSTAN 228 is the first commuter category aircraft certified by DGCA that meets international airworthiness standards. The aircraft is designed and developed by HAL, with state of art technology incorporating optimum use of composites and conventional materials".