DGCA makes licence mandatory for airports

The move is aimed to bring airports in India into the international safety and infrastructure standards.

A notification from the Ministry of Civil Aviation has said no person can operate flights to-from airports after June 30, 2011, unless it gets DGCA licence. “This means airports can continue operations without licence up to June 30, next year,” sources in the Ministry said.

The DGCA continued inspections and safety auditing of airports across the country to grant licences to airport operators, including the state-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The agency plans to issue licence to about 63 airports in the country, out of which 53 will be AAI-owned. The rest, including those in Delhi, Mumbai, Cochin, Bangalore and Hyderabad, are either privately owned or joint ventures.

The regulator has issued licences to 15 airports and has inspected 14. It has applications for licences from 15 airports.