Archive · 1 Dec 2025
India to hire short-term staff for DGCA vacancies
The Indian government is planning to hire temporary workers to help with the many empty jobs at the DGCA, which is the group that makes sure air travel is safe.
Right now, almost half of the jobs at the DGCA are not filled.
The government has been adding new jobs, but not enough to keep up with the growing number of airplanes in India.
Experts say this is a big problem because there aren't enough people to check all the planes.
The government says they are trying to fix this, but some experts think they need to do more to solve the problem for the long term.
India plans to hire short-term contractual staff to fill nearly half of the vacancies at the DGCA.
Of the 1,630 sanctioned posts at the DGCA, 801 are currently vacant.
The DGCA has added 441 new posts in the last three years, but vacancy levels remain around 50%.
Experts warn that the DGCA's staffing shortage is a serious problem, with each inspector responsible for multiple aircraft.
Short-term hiring is seen as a temporary solution, with calls for more long-term recruitment to address the structural gaps.
- Who
- Indian government and DGCA
- What
- Hiring short-term contractual staff to fill vacancies at DGCA
- When
- Ongoing, with recent focus after the Air India crash on 21 July 2025
- Where
- India
- Why
- To address chronic staffing shortages and meet regulatory requirements
- Total sanctioned posts at DGCA
- 1,630
- Vacant posts at DGCA
- 801
- Current filled posts at DGCA
- 829
- New posts created in last 3 years
- 441
- DGCA staff as of 31 March 2025
- 878
- Aircraft requiring inspection
- 2,000
- DGCA staff as flight-operations inspectors
- 830