New Delhi: India is a nation know for its rich heritage and monuments, in a bid to enhance awareness about it, aviation regulator DGCA has directed airlines to ask their pilots to make announcements about important monuments or sites enroute the flight.
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in an advisory also stated that airlines should also consider using local language for in-flight announcements ‘to extent feasible’.
Announcements in local language would be in addition to the ones made in Hindi and English, according to the DGCA advisory.
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Recently a Goa minister Vijai Sardesai, of Goa Forward Party (GFP), said that his party workers should not allow airlines to operate at the Dabolim airport if announcements are not made in the local Konkani language.
The state has lone airport at Dabolim in south Goa. Konkani is the official language of the coastal state. “Blacking out Konkani at the Goa airport is unacceptable and we should project our language first,” Sardesai had said.
The DGCA clarified in its Thursday advisory that airlines may make the aforementioned additional in-flight announcements without compromising any safety requirements or core job functions of crew members. “It is made clear that the above announcements be made without compromising safety of operations at any stage,” the advisory added. In 2016, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had issued a circular asking airports under its control to make public announcements in the local language followed by Hindi and English.
There are more than 100 operational airports in India. “To enhance awareness about cultural heritage of India, pilot can make in-flight announcement about the important monument or site (such as the Taj Mahal, the Konark Temple, the Ajanta Ellora, the Statue of Unity etc.), which are enroute the flight,” the DGCA advisory stated on Thursday.