Set up adequate number of flying schools in India: Parliamentary panel to MoCA

The Parliamentary Standing Committee acknowledged that the government has liberalised Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) policy

India may need 1,000 pilots per year in the near future and a Parliamentary panel has asked the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to ensure that “our boys and girls” need not go abroad for pilot training by facilitating the setting up of an adequate number of flying schools in the country.

Not just pilots and aircraft engineers, the aviation industry can generate a large number of jobs of non-technical nature and the committee also wants MoCA to facilitate the setting up of low-cost institutes to train air hostesses, flight attendants, flight pursers and ground/cargo handling staff.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture made the recommendations in its report on Demands for Grants (2022-23) of the Ministry of Civil Aviation tabled in Parliament last Monday.

Acknowledging that the government has liberalised Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) policy, it said the committee supports the new initiatives. It said with the growing aviation sector, there would be an increased demand for trained pilots and the MoCA should gear up to setting up new FTOs in a time-bound manner.

“The Committee recommends that keeping in view of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat, sufficient FTOs may be established in various parts of the country to ensure that our boys and girls are not going to foreign countries to get pilot training,” it said.

The MoCA has approached the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and state governments on the reduction of GST on AvGas and funding support to FTOs.

There are 34 FTOs approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) at present. Twenty-five are under the state governments while eight are in the private sector and one – Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi – under the Centre.

According to the multi-party panel headed by BJP MP TG Venkatesh, there is an acute shortage of skilled manpower and proper training institutes in the civil aviation sector, which has the potential of employment opportunities for the youth.

“Other than the highly specialised jobs like commercial pilots and aircraft engineers, there are non-technical jobs like air hostess, flight attendants, flight pursers, cabin crew, ground/cargo handling staff, administrative/sales staff, where there can be a lot of job creations,” it said.

The committee recommended that proper training institutes at low cost may be set up across the country to provide requisite training in these airline services so that the youth may be gainfully employed.

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