New Delhi: Refusing the claims by a section of media that staff shortage at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was causing delays in issuance of pilot licenses, the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Wednesday said the DGCA is meeting the indicative timelines for the issuance of pilot licences despite an increase in the number of applications.
"It is clarified that the application processing time may vary depending upon the complexity and completeness of the application submitted. The indicative timelines published for Issue and Conversion of Commercial Pilot License (CPL) by DGCA is 20 and 30 working days respectively," the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
According to the aviation ministry, the aviation watchdog (DGCA) has been meeting the indicative timelines despite an increase in number of applications. Average timelines achieved for applications during 2023 for CPL Issue & Conversion is 22 and 31 working days, it said. It said that the total number of CPLs issued in 2022 was the highest in the last decade and this number has already been surpassed in September 2023.
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"The number of CPLs in 2023 are likely to be the highest ever issued,” it said adding that the number of licenses and ratings issued has “already seen an increase of 45% as on 31 August 2023 compared to entire year of 2022." Regarding the staff position at the regulator, the union aviation ministry said that the total sanctioned strength of operations cadre at DGCA is 228 and these posts are spread across various Directorates at the regulator.
"Of these 228, the sanctioned strength of technical manpower in Flight Crew Licensing Directorate in DGCA headquarters is 15, against which 12 officers are currently posted", it noted. After sanction of posts, DGCA has initiated action for filling up the following posts which includes issuing of promotion order in respect of 35 officers in the Operations cadre and as many as 111 officers have been promoted in various cadres of the DGCA since the sanction of new posts in August 2022.
For direct recruitment, three Operations Officers have been selected by the UPSC and a proposal for recruitment of 51 AD (Ops) is under process.
