In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol shared detailed data on airline non-compliance, safety budgets, and staffing gaps across key aviation bodies in response to a question raised in the Lok Sabha.
Mohol said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has stepped up enforcement over the past five years.
The number of actions taken against scheduled airlines has risen steadily from just two in 2021 to seven in 2022, ten in 2023 and twenty-two in 2024, before reaching nineteen so far this year.
These actions include financial penalties, suspensions of approvals or authorisations, and official warnings.
The violations recorded by the regulator cover a wide range of safety lapses. These include non-compliance with breath analyser rules for crew, failures in flight data monitoring, unauthorised cockpit access, and poor quality assurance audits.
Other breaches involved misuse of flight simulators without DGCA approval, deploying crew without mandatory training, and violating Flight Duty Time Limitations.
Maintenance-related shortcomings were also reported, such as failure to follow proper procedures, deficiencies found during spot checks, and even cases where aircraft were flown with expired emergency equipment.
The Minister said the Government has been allocating funds to strengthen DGCA’s safety and regulatory oversight, with the yearly budget details provided in an annexure to Parliament.
He also revealed the current vacancy status across four major aviation bodies: the DGCA, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), and the cadre of Air Traffic Controllers.
The sanctioned posts and vacancies for each organisation were shared to highlight manpower gaps impacting safety and regulatory functions.
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