New Delhi. 02 May 2024. The Aviation INDIA Summit will bring a team of leaders from the industry to discuss “How the Indian pilot training infrastructure is adjusting to support the growth of airlines.” The training segment is being offered in conjunction with AFM Aero. Headquartered in Dubai, AFM has quickly grown to become a leading global knowledge (news, research and advisory) platform for the pilot training industry.
Over 200,000 platform visits on an annual basis and a Weekly Pilot Training Industry Updates Newsletter distributed to over 16,000 industry stakeholders displays the impact AFM has on the global aviation and pilot training industry.
The company’s managing director Maximilian Buerger will be leading the training discussions at the Summit. “Indian airlines have placed orders for more than 1,600 new aircraft during the past 15 months,” Buerger said. “The accelerating fleet growth of airlines has resulted in huge demand for new pilots with the Indian DGCA issuing a decade high number of commercial pilot licenses (over 1,600) and type ratings (over 4,000) in 2023. To satisfy the increasing demand for pilots the global pilot training infrastructure has turned its attention to India and more importantly the Indian pilot training ecosystem has announced significant investment into the countries pilot training infrastructure.
“At the moment the 1.4 billion people country only has around 36 flight training organisations which combined operate a training aircraft fleet smaller than a few individual pilot training organisations in the United States. Similarly, the domestic full flight simulator training infrastructure is playing catch up with hundreds of Indian pilots doing their advanced pilot training outside of the country on an annual basis,” he said.
Of course, it is more than pilot shortage that drives concern. “The aviation skill in India has a gap which is widening and unless a “Training in India” drive is effected immediately for all verticals of aviation industry it would be a lost opportunity and maybe a disruption due to the shortage of engineers, pilots , technicians, airport and ground staff etc,” said Ashwani Acharya, from CAE Simulation Training Private Ltd (CSTPL), currently India’s largest ATO providing pilot training across 15 FFS at three locations in Greater Noida, Gurgaon and BLR.
Another speaker on the panel is YN “Bobby” Sharma, the CEO of Chimes Aviation Academy. “We believe that India has to create the infrastructure required to create the pilots Indian airlines need, and we are on a mission to build teams and facilities that meet and even surpass the expectations of airlines in India and around the world. The demand for pilots will only increase in the coming years and the supply must advance with an even greater pace considering the pre-existing gap between the demand and supply for pilots in India. I firmly believe that there is enough space for everyone in the Indian flying training space to grow without stepping on each other’s toes, as the gap in supply is huge and seems to be set to widen even further with the massive orders placed by major carriers in India,” Sharma said.
There is already mounting interest from overseas to attract prospective pilots from India for training. Alt Academy in South Africa is one of these, already training a large number of pilots from the sub-continent. CEO Ryan Van Wijk will be flying in to join in the debate.
Moderator Buerger is convinced the Summit segment will be a must-watch for India’s training industry and the airlines concerned with recruiting the future workforce. “Join this panel discussion to hear from chief executive officers of the largest pilot training organisations in India on how they view the demand for pilots, the development of the domestic pilot training infrastructure and the opportunities, challenges and risks they see,” Buerger said.
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