Air India announced on Monday that it will set up a flying school in Amaravati in Maharashtra. It would cost ₹200 core to build and it will target graduating 180 pilots annually. The school will be opened by June 2025.
The flying school at Amravati’s Belora airport, would be the first an Indian airline. It will have 31 single-engine Piper Archer aircraft and three twin-engine Diamond 72 aircraft.
The flying training organisation (FTO) is an initiative by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd. (MADCL). It has awarded Air India a tender to establish and operate the school.
Air India said the school will be state-of-the-art on more than 10 acres of land, with digitally enabled classrooms, a digitised operations centre, and its own maintenance facility.
“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,” Air India’s managing director and chief executive officer Campbell Wilson said in a press statement.
“We are delighted to be playing a part in building the aviation infrastructure India needs as one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets,” said Sunil Bhaskaran, director, Air India’s aviation academy.
“This collaborative initiative between MADCL 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 ₹1,000 crore to the State’s GDP over the next decade,” said Swati Pandey, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, MADCL.
The announcement will boost India’s flying training infrastructure, as 40% aspirants train overseas due to paucity of infrastructure and quality training.
