India has just pumped US$50 million into a new air-traffic control tower in New Delhi. Now comes the hard part: finding qualified flight controllers to operate it.
Designed by HOK, the same firm that drafted Apple’s research headquarters in California, the tower will be operational in about six months. Yet, it may struggle to handle more flights without enough controllers, according to aviation officials. The nation’s busiest airport needs 600 of the technicians ideally for stable operations, but employs only 360, the officials say.
The world’s fastest-growing major aviation market is grappling with a paucity of traffic controllers to meet growing demand, as many of them shun employment with the state-run Airports Authority of India, where starting monthly salaries can be as low as US$250, and choose monetarily rewarding jobs with private airlines. About a third of India’s planned air-traffic controller positions are vacant, the government said last year.
The shortfall has meant existing controllers are overworked.