Human Resource Development

1. Airport management, air safety, airport security, navigation & communication and fire prevention are critical areas of human resource development, especially in the context of privatization of these functions. Stress needs to be laid on developing an overall environment of courteous behavior by all associated with airport operations besides inculcating safety and security as a habit. It is thus of utmost importance that private institutions are set up for training of airport managers, air traffic controllers, navigation and communication engineers, airport security and fire-fighting personnel and they are licensed by the Government. Appropriate syllabi and course contents should be laid down and there should be legal provision for licensing of these personnel.
2. Simultaneously, the training facilities in the public sector have to be upgraded and refurbished so as to cater to the growing demands for trained personnel as also to counter the phenomenon of technological obsolescence.
3. The National Institute of Aviation Management and Research should be strengthened so as to act as the lead institution for human resource development. It should develop academic linkages with ICAO, IIT, IIMs and Universities. Chairs on Civil Aviation research will be created in the institutions of learning.
4. In certain areas of human resources, there may be need for introduction of innovative systems of deployment like the flexible complementing scheme prevalent in the scientific community, so that the benefits of specialization are not frittered away at the time of promotion.
5. Contingency and back-up plans will be drawn up to meet emergencies arising out of industrial unrest among airport staff.
6. Airport management needs expertise in diverse fields and cannot survive except by sub-contracting of specialized activities to a host of private organizations. Legal hurdles to engagement of contract labor or contractual agencies will have to be dismantled through legislative intervention.