India plans to become a global flying training hub and will soon have eight new Flying Training Academies under the liberalised Flying Training Organisation (FTO) policy of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the Union Civil Aviation Ministry has said.
The Flying Training Academies will be set up at Belagavi, Jalgaon, Kalaburagi, Khajuraho and Lilabari, with the aim to making India a global flying training hub and to prevent the exodus of Indian cadets to foreign FTOs, the ministry said in a release.
“These five airports have been carefully chosen since they have minimal disruption due to weather issues and civil/ military air traffic,” the ministry stated.
These FTOs will also be designed to cater to the flying training requirements of cadets in India’s neighbouring countries, the ministry added.
The ministry stated that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) successfully managed to finalise the bidding process amid the challenging period caused due to the second wave of COVID-19.
This initiative will help the Indian flying training sector in becoming more self-sustaining under the Atmannirbhar Bharat initiative, the ministry said.
The Airports Authority of India had invited bids for the same in November 2020. The award letters were issued on May 31, 2021 to winning bidders: Asia-Pacific, Jetserve, Redbird, Samvardhane and Skynex, the ministry said.
The parameters set for prospective bidders included familiarisation with aviation safety aspects, regulatory mechanisms, experience in the field of training pilots on manned aircraft, the availability of equipment, trainers, etc. To make FTOs attractive for bidders, AAI reduced the minimum annual rental significantly to Rs.15 lacs. Furthermore, the concept of airport royalty was scrapped to make these ventures business-friendly, the ministry added in a PIB release.
