When the first aircraft from India had its way in the air with the first time passengers the founding fathers perhaps didn’t expect that just within some decades there would be such a rush. It has come to the knowledge that in the present days, especially in the last three years, there has been an exponential growth of 25% in respect of India’s fast-growing airline industry! There is no doubt in it that never before so many Indians found it so convenient and so affordable to fly for work or leisure. Indeed this has been the contribution of the fierce competition of the premiere airliner companies of India viz. Air Deccan, SpiceJet, Kingfisher, IndiGo and Go Air. What has been learnt that only on the very last year the Indian airports were found to handle 90.44 million passengers, compared with 67.95 million in the previous year. A commendable growth indeed.

But, from this can we say everything is in the best perfect condition and the Indian airliners are heading towards further growth? On the contrary the situation is not so rosy, and it can be better termed as the overall situation is out of the frying pan into the fire. What is the prominent reason? There has been no professional development in the overall infrastructure, and that has left the airports, even the most renowned ones, struggling with all their might to cope with long queues of harried passengers, and severely compromising air safety. In this respect it would not be wrong o ascertain that a series of so-called near misses in New Delhi over the last two weeks has been the best picture! There is indeed a host of problems, ranging from shortage of air traffic controllers and pilots to outdated technology and inadequately maintained equipment at the 125 airports around the country. Besides the horde of outdated and incompetent pilots, with the production of 100 new ones in comparison to the demand of 400 each year, adds salt to the gaping wound.    

Talking to this reporter Mr. D.S. Raghavan, the President of the Delhi-based Air Traffic Controllers\' Guild says in despair, "India needs 4,000 air traffic controllers, but has only 1,500. Given how stressful the job is, traffic controllers are allowed to work no more than eight hours a day, and 110 hours a month. But we work 10-hour shifts round the year!”