'GAY' code for Gaya airport inappropriate, needs to be changed: Parliament panel to Govt

Parliamentary panel on Friday said the use of GAY code for Gaya airport is inappropriate for the holy city and asked the government to make all efforts to change the codeThe Committee on Public Undertakings in its first report tabled in Parliament in January 2021 had recommended changing the code of Gaya airport from GAY and also suggested an alternate code name like YAGAccording to the civil aviation ministry International Air Transport Association IATA has expressed its inability to change the code without a justifiable reason primarily concerning air safetyThe IATA assigns the code for airports The committee said the code name appeared inappropriate unsuitable offensive and embarrassing considering that Gaya is a holy cityIn an action taken report tabled in Parliament on Friday the panel mentioned about the issue and has asked the government to make all effort to takeup the matter with the IATA and concerned organisation as the issue involves inappropriate code naming of an airport of a holy city of our countryThe ministry in its action taken reply has submitted that the matter was referred to IATA by Air IndiaIn this regard IATA stated that as per Resolution 763 the location codes are considered permanent and a strong justification primarily concerning air safety needs to be givenGaya airport IATA code GAY has been in use since operationalisation of Gaya airstrip Hence without a justifiable reason primarily concerning air safety IATA has expressed its inability to change the IATA code of Gaya airport the ministry told the panelThe ministrys reply has been mentioned in the panels report tabled on FridayThe committee appreciate the efforts of Air India being a member airline of IATA taking up the request with the international air transport association but yet reemphasise the government also to make all effort to takeup the matter with the IATA the report saidIn the first report that was tabled in Parliament in January 2021 the panel had mentioned that it was apprised about a request received by the civil aviation ministry regarding change of code name of Gaya airportThe panel had also recommended that the government and Air India complete all the requisite consultations and formalities in a timebound manner to change the code name of Gaya airportThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever