India's First

With the setting up of the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University, the Indian civil aviation industry will finally have a credible umbrella organisation to ensure availability of high quality human resource across the entire spectrum of disciplines

The civil aviation industry in India today is over hundred years old. Its origin can be traced to February 18, 1911, when Henri Piquet undertook the first commercial civil aviation flight from Allahabad and Naini on a Humber biplane covering a distance of just 9.5 km. Apart from being a major achievement for civil aviation, this event was also ground-breaking for the airmail service in India as it was the first time that mail was delivered by aircraft.

Since its advent in India, the civil aviation industry has clocked a number of high points in its long journey. Some of these include the launch in December 1912 of the first international flight by Indian State Air Services; commencement of regular airmail service between Karachi and Madras in 1915 by Tata Sons Ltd; commencement of construction of civil airports in 1924 beginning with Dum Dum, Bamrauli and Bombay; establishment in April 1927 of a separate Department of Civil Aviation under the Central Government; appointment in 1931 of Lt Colonel Shelmerdine as the first Director General of Civil Aviation to oversee civil aviation regulatory issues; promulgation of the Indian Aircraft Act in 1934; establishment in 1940 of the first Indian aerospace venture, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited by Walchand Hirachand in collaboration with the then Mysore Government; establishment in 1946 of the national carrier Air India; passage of the Air Corporations Act in March 1953; entry of Air India into the jet age in 1960 with the induction of Boeing 707 airliner; formation of the International Airports Authority of India (IAAI) in 1972; inauguration of the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademy (IGRUA) on November 7, 1985; de-regulation of the Indian civil aviation sector in 1991 facilitating the emergence of private carriers on the civil aviation scene; establishment of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in 1995 and the passage of the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) Bill in 2009.

After its tumultuous but impressive journey over the last ten decades, the civil aviation industry in India is now the ninth largest in the world with 125 operational airports, around 800 aircraft, five major scheduled airlines, a large number of non-scheduled operators, privately owned aircraft operators and several regional carriers in the pipeline. Despite the current slowdown, annual passenger traffic at Indian airports is expected to resume a healthy growth trajectory and is expected to reach 421 million by 2020. If pronouncements by the Minister of Civil Aviation are to be regarded as credible, the government is doing everything to ensure that the Indian aviation industry climbs to the third slot in the world by the year 2020. As per the forecast by Boeing, India will induct 1,000 new airliners by then.

However, in the rapid and impressive march of the Indian civil aviation industry to ascend to lofty heights, what has been lacking all along is focus on institutionalised professional education to serve the needs of the Indian aviation industry. Ironically, while the government has been planning to set up capacity-building institutions in Africa in a variety of disciplines including in civil aviation, for some reason for over nine decades it has failed to address the issue of development of skilled, managerial and operational hands required by the Indian civil aviation sector. Thus so far, the industry has had to depend on human resource churned out largely by privately run agencies, some with doubtful credentials and the not-so-well-managed government-owned institutions for manpower trained in the different disciplines of the Indian aviation industry. The responsibility of monitoring of quality and standardisation has always been entrusted to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation that has been perpetually understaffed and really not in a position to deliver.

However, in the rapid and impressive march of the Indian civil aviation industry to ascend to lofty heights, what has been lacking all along is focus on institutionalised professional education to serve the needs of the Indian aviation industry. Ironically, while the government has been planning to set up capacity-building institutions in Africa in a variety of disciplines including in civil aviation, for some reason for over nine decades it has failed to address the issue of development of skilled, managerial and operational hands required by the Indian civil aviation sector. Thus so far, the industry has had to depend on human resource churned out largely by privately run agencies, some with doubtful credentials and the not-so-well-managed government-owned institutions for manpower trained in the different disciplines of the Indian aviation industry. The responsibility of monitoring of quality and standardisation has always been entrusted to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation that has been perpetually understaffed and really not in a position to deliver.

After over 100 years of its existence, the Indian civil aviation industry will finally have a credible umbrella organisation to ensure availability of high quality human resource across the entire spectrum of disciplines.