Vir Vikram Yadav Named Chief of Aviation Watchdog DGCA
The senior IAS officer replaces Faiz Ahmed Kidwai as India’s aviation regulator faces pressure after IndiGo’s flight disruptions and wider safety concerns.
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Vir Vikram Yadav, an additional secretary in the environment ministry, has been appointed Director General of Civil Aviation in a wider government reshuffle dated 31 March, replacing Faiz Ahmed Kidwai.
The appointments list issued by the Department of Personnel and Training shows Yadav, a 1996-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Odisha cadre, moving to civil aviation, while Kidwai, also a 1996-batch IAS officer, was shifted to Personnel and Training.
The change follows months of scrutiny of both the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the civil aviation ministry after operational disruptions at IndiGo and safety concerns involving Air India, although the government gave no official reason for the personnel move.
IndiGo had come under regulatory pressure after mass flight cancellations linked to poor pilot roster planning, while Air India faced intensified oversight after safety lapses and a fatal crash in June 2025.
For Kidwai, the sharpest pressure point was IndiGo’s December operational breakdown. Reuters reported that the airline had canceled more than 2,000 flights before the regulator stepped in, after failing to adjust rosters to new pilot duty and rest rules, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of passengers.
The DGCA later fined IndiGo $2.45 million, warned senior executives and directed the airline to relieve Jason Herter, Senior Vice-President of its Operations Control Center, of his operational duties, while the aviation ministry ordered an internal review of the regulator’s own functioning.
The episode also exposed a deeper regulatory failure over scheduling and crew availability.
The DGCA had approved 15,014 IndiGo departures a week for the winter season before later ordering the airline to cut its planned schedule by 10% to bring operations back into line with pilot availability.
The government also temporarily relaxed some night-duty rules for IndiGo pilots to help stabilize operations, drawing criticism from pilot unions and safety advocates.
