GURUGRAM, 2 July 2024: Air India 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).
This FTO will support the airline as it progresses in its transformation journey and strengthen its available pilot training capacity in India.
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 Air India FTO, the first by any Indian airline in the country, will have 31 single-engine aircraft and three twin-engine aircraft for training.
The Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) has awarded Air India a tender to establish and operate this DGCA-licensed FTO in Amravati for 30 years.
Air India MD & CEO Campbell Wilson 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 fulfil 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.”
“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. 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 the Air India Aviation Academy Director Sunil Bhaskaran.
At the FTO in Amravati, Air India will develop a state-of-the-art training institute over 10 acres, with digitally enabled classrooms, hostels at par with global academies, a digitised operations centre, and its own maintenance facility to elevate operational efficiency. The FTO is curated to deliver the highest safety standards and best-in-class training.
As part of its commitment to invest in aviation training, Air India earlier this year announced its new Training Academy in Gurugram, will cover over 600,000 sq ft, the largest in South Asia.
