MUMBAI: Tata Group-run Air India said on Monday that it is setting up South Asia’s largest Flying Training Organisation (FTO) at Amravati in Maharashtra as part of an initiative by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC).
The DGCA-licensed FTO at Amravati’s Belora airport will be operational by Q1 FY26 and will target to graduate 180 commercial pilots every year, the airline said.
The Air India FTO will have 31 single-engine aircraft and 3 twin-engine aircraft for training. Air India has been awarded a tender by the MADC to establish and operate the FTO 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 in its transformation journey.”
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.”
“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.
The FTO will be developed in over 10 acres, with digitally enabled classrooms, hostels, a digitised operations center, and its own maintenance facility. Air India earlier this year announced its new Training Academy, spread over 600,000 sq ft, the largest in South Asia, in Gurugram.
Besides Air India, IndiGo last week announced that it has partnered with Garuda Aviation Academy to train fresh pilots as future junior first officers, under the airline’s Cadet Pilot Program. This is the eighth partnership for cadet pilot program by IndiGo in the last 13 years.
The 21-month course also includes three-month ground schooling at Garuda Aviation Academy training center in Gurugram, followed by 12-months of training at 43 Air School in South Africa, which has a track record of training 6000+ ab-initio pilots over the years. Over the past 13 years, IndiGo has inducted over 1000 pilots through these full training programs, which include commercial pilot license and A320 type rating.