Indian skies are safer than before: DGCA

Indian skies are becoming safer, according to data from civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Continuous investment on safety program and regular surveillance by the regulator has led to reduction in incidents like airprox or pilots commiting to land despite unstabilised approach.

An airprox is the breach of minimum separation (both vertical and lateral) that two aircraft need to maintain while flying.


According to Annual Safety Review of 2022, the number of Risk Bearing Airprox per million flights over Indian airspace has reduced by 25%.

While, number of unstabilised approaches that continue to land per ten thousand approaches, has shown a continuous decreasing trend with a reduction of approximately 23% over last two years.

"This data driven approach ensures a firm embedding of the safety culture in the aviation growth trajectory and provides a robust process to identify emerging safety issues and continually refine existing procedures," DGCA said.

India's performance among global peers have also improved.

While there are 1.87 accidents per million departures globally in 2023, for India it is zero.

The country also didn't have a fatal accident crash in scheduled commercial operation since the Air India Express crash in Kozhikode in 2020.

UN body, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) had upgraded India’s aviation safety readiness after a safety audit in 2022.

Following that safety audit, India’s effective implementation score was raised to 85.49% from 72.93 after the 2018 security audit, placing the country higher than several other members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, such as China, Poland and Denmark