Over 10,000 posts vacant in country's aviation security agencies

The country’s aviation sector is flying high but with dangerously thin crew on the ground. Over 10,000 sanctioned posts lie vacant in key regulatory bodies tasked with ensuring passenger safety, air traffic control, and airport security. As of June 2025, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) collectively reported 10,530 vacant positions.

In a written response to MP Medha Vishram Kulkarni’s question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol acknowledged the large-scale vacancies, but claimed that the functioning of these agencies remained unaffected. “Several posts have been created in recent years to meet the growing civil aviation demands. Recruitment efforts are ongoing and aggressive,” he said.

As per official figures, DGCA has 823 posts unfilled out of a sanctioned strength of 1,644. BCAS is operating with just 368 employees against its sanctioned 598, leaving 230 posts vacant. The situation is starkest in the AAI, where 9,477 of 25,730 sanctioned posts are currently unoccupied, including critical roles such as Air Traffic Controllers.

Despite the numbers, the government said the vacancies hadn't compromised passenger screening or enforcement of air safety norms. Mohol explained that delays in recruitment were often due to poor response to advertisements, selected candidates declining to join, or eligibility gaps in feeder cadres for promotion.

To bridge the shortfall temporarily, the ministry said it was actively hiring contractual staff and exploring deputation. "All methods of recruitment are pursued vigorously in order to ensure timely and continuous availability of requisite manpower," said the minister in the reply.

He further said said to meet requirements in the interregnum due to vacancies arising from reasons like inadequate response to advertisements, non-joining of selected candidates, persons with insufficient service in the feeder cadre for promotion, insufficient response to deputation posts efforts were being made to recruit persons through short-terms contractual hiring.

The minister also said new posts were created as part of capacity-building measures, 441 in DGCA (mostly technical) between 2022 and 2024, 84 operational posts in BCAS following its restructuring in 2024 and 840 ATCO positions in AAI.