Air India is setting up a flying training institute in Maharashtra’s Amravati, and is expected to be operational by Q1 FY26. The institute will train 180 commercial pilots every year.
The airline said that the Flying Training Organisation (FTO) would be South Asia’s largest, and would be part of an initiative by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC). Air India aims to strengthen the pilot training capacity in the country, it said in a statement.
The Air India FTO would be DGCA-licenced and would be at Amravati’s Belora airport. It will have 31 single-engine aircraft and three twin-engine aircraft for training.
The tender letter has already been awarded by the MADC for the establishment of the FTO and its operation for a period of 30 years.
Campbell Wilson, MD & CEO, 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 inits transformation journey.”
Sunil Bhaskaran, Directors, Aviation Academy, Air India said that the FTO would offer aspiring pilots an opportunity to undergo world-class curricula, at par with best-in-class global schools.
The collaboration between MADC and Air India would not only boost the economy of Maharashtra but would focus on over 3,000 new employment opportunities within the aviation sector, said Swati Pandey, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, MADC. She said it would create “employment in multifarious allied activities in skilling, technical and small entrepreneurial ventures” which would contribute over Rs 1,000 crore to the state GDP over the next decade.
She said it will also encourage students in Maharashtra to pursue careers in aviation.
The institute will develop a state-of-the-art facility spread over 10 acres, with digitally enabled classrooms, hostels, digitized operations center, and its own maintenance facility to elevate operational efficiency.
Air India had earlier this year announced its new training academy, spread over 600,000 sq ft, the largest in South Asia, in Gurugram.