NEW DELHI: The Civil Aviation Ministry is considering to issue a security advisory to all airlines in light of the cockpit incident that took place on the FlyDubai plane on Wednesday, said a senior official.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) will make Aerodrome Entry Permits for around 15 lakh applicants each year fully digital from this month, with facial biometric verification, officials said.
An Aerodrome Entry Permit is an official authorisation that allows only eligible personnel to enter designated restricted areas of an airport or aerodrome.
Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha said responding to a media query, “This (security advisory) is under examination. Internal deliberations are on.” He further said, “In case any advisory is to be issued, we will put it up with our higher authorities for taking a decision on the matter.”
Referring to the FlyDubai incident, Sinha said, “This is an unfortunate incident. The nation is very proud of the fact that Captain Smit, an Indian, was able to save so many lives. We would not like to delve much into it as it pertains to some other country.”
Director General of BCAS, Rajesh Nirwan, “The Entry Permits are now touching 15 lakh every year across all airports, making it difficult to process and monitor these applications in a manual format. To overcome this problem, we plan to make it all digital."
"It would be contactless and paperless, eliminating the need for an individual to visit the BCAS office. “It will be rolled out simultaneously across all the 169 airports in the country,” he added.
An end-to-end digital process was being proposed for entry into the airport. “This will increase transparency as each applicant will know the status of their application. It will enable centralised monitoring and show why an application is kept pending for a long time. It will improve control and compliance and lead to faster processing,” Nirwan explained.
He said a facial biometric system will be adopted, and it will be faster and more secure. Full body scanners were being planned at eight airports in the country apart from Kochi airport, he added.
Lesser paperwork and faster approvals were being pursued on all aspects monitored by the BCAS. The director general said security programmes, security vetting, audit, inspections and training would be digitised. The ease of doing business for all entities is being enhanced.