By Ameya Joshi
In a not so surprising announcement, Air India has decided to set up South Asia’s largest flight training academy in the western state of Maharashtra at Amravati and aims to invest to the tune of INR 200 crore. This will be under the aegis of the Air India training institute which is headed by the former CEO of AirAsia India which has been renamed AIX Connect and is set to merge with Air India Express in a few months.
The flight school is expected to open in the first quarter of next financial year and will ensure a steady pipeline of pilots for the airline. Air India is the first airline to set up such a training school and the initiative comes on the backdrop of its mega order of 470 Airbus and Boeing aircraft last year. The airline could require anywhere between 500 to 800 pilots each year for its expansion plan. Air India has partnered with Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) which has leased a 10-acre plot at Amravati on a thirty-year lease. Air India has a fleet of around 140 aircraft now and has hired over a thousand pilots in the past two years.
A government-owned Air India had never invested in a separate Air India branded pilot training academy. The government’s training academy at Rae Bareli is named IGRUA (Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi) and trains pilots across the year.
Amravati Airport and which planes will it see?
Located a few kilometers south of Amravati town, the airport has not been in operation for a while but is undergoing a fast-paced revamp led by the Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC). This has led to an increase in runway length to 1850 meters and the installation of navigation aids including a Night Landing facility. With Amravati not facing the fog issues of the northern belt and monsoons which are not harsh, it will give fair weather for more days, a vital parameter for selecting the airport. The airport is also away from major towns and cities with airports giving it relatively free airspace for practice.
Air India will operate 31 single-engine piper aircraft and three twin-engine Diamond aircraft with an aim to train 180 commercial pilots annually. The single-engined Piper aircraft is one of the most popular planes in its size for both training and cross-country flights in developed countries where aviation is affordable. The twin-engine Diamond aircraft will allow the trainees to complete their multi-engine rating within the training academy, after which they can proceed to type rating.
Air India enters the global club
Air India has now entered the global club of a handful of airlines that have their own pilot training academy. In the neighbourhood, Emirates has one. Interestingly, Emirates is often referred to as the National Carrier of India and Air India has time and again seen Emirates as its challenger for more traffic originating in India.
Air India has a good mixture of planes in its fleet, both Airbus and Boeing. This will only get complex from here on. With existing unions and an old merger that hasn’t gone down too well and another merger about to happen, the pilot community is one of the most aggrieved ones.
The current cadet pilot programs across third parties for any airline does not give full control for the airline. In this case, Air India can grade cadets and based on the performance allocate a fleet for the cadets rather than depending only on the demand at that point of time. The airline has set up its own training centre in Gurugram in partnership with Airbus and US-based L3 Harris and it has six simulators.
The own facility will also earn the airline some brownie points with the government which has been pushing to promote commercial pilot training within India and has granted approvals for multiple Flight Training Academies, some of which have been marred with poor quality training, crashes and even groundings. Many students go abroad for training, which is expensive and can go as high as Rs 2 crore. Together, airlines in India have over 1250 aircraft on order.
This will give Air India better control over competition which has co-branded training programmes affiliated with independent flight schools in India and abroad.
Ameya Joshi is an aviation analyst and columnist who runs the analysis website Network Thoughts.
