Air India To Open Flying Institute In Maharashtra, Train 180 Pilots Annually

Tata Group-owned Air India plans to set up a training institute in Amravati, Maharashtra, with the goal of training 180 commercial pilots every year.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation-licensed Flight Training Organisation, or FTO, at Belora Airport will be the largest in South Asia and is set to become operational in the first quarter of the next financial year, according to a statement from the airline.

Spanning 10 acres, the facility will feature digitally-enabled classrooms, hostel accommodations comparable to global academies, a digitised operation centre, and a maintenance unit. This will be the first training institute established by an Indian airline and will house 31 single-engine aircraft and three twin-engine aircraft for training purposes.

Air India won a tender from the Maharashtra Airport Development Co. to establish and operate the facility for 30 years.

Campbell Wilson, managing director and chief executive officer of Air India, emphasised the importance of the FTO in making Indian aviation more self-reliant and providing opportunities for Indian youth to become pilots. "The young pilots from this FTO will help Air India achieve its ambition of becoming a world-class airline as it progresses in its transformation journey," Wilson said.

The FTO will offer aspiring pilots training with world-class curricula comparable to top global schools, said Sunil Bhaskaran, director of the aviation academy at Air India.

"The collaboration between MADC and Air India will significantly boost Maharashtra's economy by generating over 3,000 new employment opportunities within the aviation sector and creating jobs in related activities. This initiative is expected to contribute over Rs 1,000 crore to the state's GDP over the next decade," said Swati Pandey, vice chairman and managing director of MADC.

(With inputs from PTI.)