The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and three aviation regulators—DGCA, BCAS, and AERA—currently have 2,645 vacant positions, the government revealed on Thursday, February 5, 2026. Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, said steps are being taken to fill these vacancies. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has 787 vacancies, mainly due to 441 new posts created during 2022-2024 restructuring. At the AAI, 1,667 executive posts are vacant. The authority is speeding up recruitment, redeploying staff at sensitive airports, and creating more Air Traffic Controller (ATCO) posts to cope with growing airspace needs. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) have 180 and 11 vacancies respectively. Both BCAS and AERA operate on deputation and periodically issue vacancy notices. In another reply, Mr. Mohol said IndiGo cancelled 6,936 flights over the last three months, affecting 10,81,680 passengers. Reasons for cancellations included over-optimization, weak regulatory preparedness, system software issues, and operational problems. Additionally, bad weather caused many cancellations in December 2025.