Union Government approved Proposal to replace DGCA with New Regulator

The Union government on 11 July 2013 approved a proposal to replace DGCA with a new aviation regulator with full operational and financial autonomy.

The new regulatory body would be named the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and is meant to replace the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The CAA is being established to meet the standards set by UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and in line with aviation regulators in other countries like the Federal Aviation Administration of the US and the UK’s CAA.

The decision to come with new aviation regulator was taken considering that that DGCA had some degree of limited delegation of financial powers and therefore was quite unable of making adequate structural changes to meet the demands of a dynamic civil aviation sector.

 Function Civil Aviation Authority will Perform

• CAA would deal with matters relating to financial stress on safety of air operations, as witnessed in connection with the bankrupt Kingfisher Airlines in October 2012.
• They will also deal with Issues relating to consumer protection and environment regulations in civil aviation sector as per the draft legislation.
• The other major Function of Civil Aviation Authority will be to administer and regulate civil aviation safety and manage safety error over air transport operators, air service navigation operators and operators of other civil aviation facilities.