About three months before the Air India aircraft accident in Ahmedabad, a parliamentary committee warned of a huge shortage of employees in government institutions responsible for aviation security and regulatory monitoring in India. In a report in March 2025, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture said that more than 53% of the posts in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are vacant, which is responsible for the protection of every aircraft flying or landing in the country.
Even though the shortage of employees does not directly relieve, it affects the operation when important positions remain vacant. The committee had expressed ‘serious concern’ over the huge shortage of old employees in major aviation regulators and operational bodies like DGCA, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The report said that the committee is very concerned that the old problem of employee deficiency in these institutions may affect safety, safety and service distribution standards. Especially when the amount of air traffic is continuously increasing. The 375th report of Demands for Grants (2025-26) for the Ministry of Civil Aviation revealed the Employees Shortage. These had three points in it-
More than 53% of the posts in DGCA are vacant, which oversees aviation security.
35% posts in BCAS are vacant which is responsible for the safety of airports
17% of the posts in AAI are vacant which manages the infrastructure of airports.
Overall details of employee status
In order to understand the seriousness of the employee crisis, the OSINT team of India Today investigated the data from the last five years from the records of the last five years. In April 2025, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Muralidhar Mohol gave details of sanctioned posts, filled posts and vacancies in major aviation bodies.
As of 31 March 2025, AAI reported 9,502 vacancies out of 25,730 sanctioned posts, which is about one-third. AAI is responsible for the development and maintenance of the infrastructure of airports as well as air traffic management (ATM) services. Data showed that there were 8,804 in 2023, 9,057 in 2022, and 11,309 vacancies in 2021.
In the report of the Parliamentary Committee, DGCA’s data was exposed as the most worrying trend. Due to the vacancy of more than 53% posts here, the Parliamentary Committee expressed ‘fundamental concerns about its ability to effectively implement aviation safety standards’.
A working commercial pilot told India Today, ‘DGCA has two security -oversee bodies, the first flying staff and ground engineers who have to undergo compulsory training every six months. The report also mentions the low use of funds by the DGCA, which spent only Rs 205.6 crore out of the revised allocation of Rs 278 crore by January 2025.
This is not a lump sum problem. In the last five years, even though the air passenger traffic has been tripled by three times and the size of the fleet has almost doubled, but the number of employees in aviation security has barely increased by 100. Year after year data, it shows that in 2025 there was a slight increase in the number of vacancies in DGCA.
The same pattern is seen in the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) responsible for maintaining aviation security. About 35% of its sanctioned posts are vacant, which is increasing concerns about the effectiveness and strength of safety monitoring at Indian airports. Year by year data, it shows that the vacant posts in BCAS increased from 187 to 224 in 2024 to 224. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Indian aviation sector received 999 fake bomb threats in 2024, which is about 10 times more than the previous year.