On Monday, July 1st, 2024, Tata-run Air India announced that it is setting up South Asia's largest FTO (Flying Training Organization) at Amravati, Maharashtra by 2026, under an initiative by Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC).

Air India had earlier this year announced its new training academy, spread over 600,000 sqft, the largest in South Asia, in Gurugram According to the airline, the Belora airport in Amravati would have a DGCA-licensed FTO operating by Q1 FY26, to graduate 180 commercial pilots annually.

South Asia's largest FTO
Image Source: Logos-world

Campbell Wilson, MD & CEO, of Air India, said, “The FTO at Amravati will be a significant step towards making Indian aviation more self-reliant and offering more opportunities to the youth in India to fulfill their ambitions of flying as pilots. The young pilots coming out of this FTO will fuel Air India’s ambition of becoming a world-class airline, as it moves ahead in its transformation journey.”

For training, the Air India FTO will have three twin-engine and thirty-one single-engine aircraft. The MADC has given Air India the go-ahead to develop and run the FTO for thirty years. The Maharashtra Airport Development Company put out a tender and Air India won it to build and run this 30-year-licensed FTO in Amravati with a DGCA license. Sprawling across 10 acres, the state-of-the-art institute will have digitally enabled classrooms, hostels, a digitized operations center, and its maintenance facility to elevate efficiency.

Sunil Bhaskaran, Director of Aviation Academy, Air India said, “The FTO will be operational by Q1 FY26 and offer aspiring pilots an opportunity to undergo training with world-class curricula at par with best-in-class global schools.”

Spread across more than ten acres, the FTO will have digitally equipped classrooms, dormitories, a digitalized operations center, and a separate maintenance facility. Earlier this year, Air India announced the opening of its new Training Academy in Gurugram, which spans 600,000 square feet and is the largest in South Asia.

In addition to Air India, IndiGo also revealed last week that, as part of the airline's Cadet Pilot Program, it has teamed up with Garuda Aviation Academy to train new pilots who would eventually become junior first officers. In the past 13 years, IndiGo has partnered on eight cadet pilot programs.

IndiGo's Cadet Pilot Program and Collaboration with South Asia's Largest FTO

“This collaborative initiative between MADC and Air India will not only boost the economy of Maharashtra by focusing on over 3,000 new employment opportunities within the aviation sector but also create employment in multifarious allied activities in skilling, technical, and small entrepreneurial ventures culminating in an impressive contribution of over Rs 1,000 crore to the state’s GDP over the next decade,” said Swati Pandey, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Maharashtra Airport Development Company.

“The establishment of South Asia’s largest FTO will certainly encourage students in Maharashtra to pursue careers in aviation which would further instill a deep sense of inspiration and pride for the state of Maharashtra and the Indian citizenry,” she added.

Along with three months of ground training at the Garuda Aviation Academy training facility in Gurugram, the 21-month program also includes twelve months of instruction at 43 Air Schools in South Africa, which has trained more than 6,000 ab initio pilots in the past. With these comprehensive training programs, which include an A320 type rating and a commercial pilot license, IndiGo has trained over a thousand pilots over the last thirteen years.

The aviation consultant CAPA raised concerns about the industry's labor scarcity in its forecast published last month. “The shortages of pilots, AMEs (aircraft maintenance engineers), cabin crew, flight dispatchers and others are far more serious than currently estimated or visible,” Kapil Kaul, CEO of CAPA India, said, adding that the introduction of the new flight duty time limitations guidelines that are likely to be implemented this year and poaching by Middle Eastern carriers is likely to accentuate the labor shortage issue.

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