DGCA acts on license fraud, but not on airfares
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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has plotted a course of action to tighten up the pilot selection process which was blown open by recent reports of qualified commercial airline pilots having cheated the system. However in a seperat issue involving the DGCA, it was categorically stated that the watchdog body does not have the authority to regulate ticket costs.Speaking to media representatives at the GMR Aviation Security Summit in Hyderabad at the weekend, Director General of Civil Aviation Bharat Bhushan said has laid out plans to tighten up the selection process. The recent screening of 3,000 licenses revealed that only a small number of fraudulent applications got through, but this does not forgive the safety threat which cost one official at the DGCA his job. He added that the DGCA would monitor the conduct of pilot training schools much more closely in regard to their certification on marks and flight hours before clearing licenses.
Bhushan also commented on the ongoing airfare debate which has seen Travel Agents calling for government action to combat rising prices. “I am afraid tariff is a function of demand and supply and unless there is an extraordinary hike in fares, we will not be able to tell them that this is wrong. We have persuasive powers. But we have no authority to control fares,” he said. The DGCA has an Aviation Tariff Monitoring Cell, through which it brought in a system of requiring the airlines to submit their fare structures. However this does not dictate the pricing which the Director General says must be left open to the market forces. He attributed the rising fares to capacity constraints at major airports, coupled with increased Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) costs.
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