Liberalized pilot training regime

The initiatives taken by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to develop, modernize and upgrade airports in the country with huge capital expenditure to the tune of Rs 25000 crores by 2025 are aimed at meeting the international aviation standards and air traffic and growth in both domestic and international passengers. Flying Training Organizations (FTO) achieving their targets of training pilots, cabin crew, engineers, airport staff, cargo handling staff, administrative and other related staff is crucial to avoid a mismatch between the physical infrastructure being built and requirement of trained personnel in aviation industry in the country. Matching the two is critical to India becoming the third largest aviation market in the world by 2024 in terms of both domestic and international traffic apart from prevailing status as the third largest domestic aviation market. The Parliamentary Committee on Estimates has flagged its concern that of the total 136 airports in the country, 109 are operational but pins hope on the liberalised FTO policy adopted by the Civil Aviation Ministry for meeting requirement of human capital. Another significant gain for the country from the liberalised FTO regime will be reversing foreign exchange loss due to commercial pilots training abroad. The Ministry estimates that requirement of airport staff, including pilots, cabin crew and others, is poised to leap to 3,50,000 by 2024 from current figure of about 2,50,000. This also speaks volume about the massive growth in aviation industry that is poised to take place over the next two years. Under the liberalised FTO regime, the AAI has done away with the airport royalty and rationalized land rental charges, notes the Committee in its report which explains its confidence in new policy regime creating the required ecosystem for FTOs to meet their goals. The previous FTO policy required the training organisations to pay 13% airport royalty to AAI (charged on revenue of FTO) while land rentals were linked to local land rates which rendered the FTOs unsustainable and also led to disputes with AAI. The committee expressed the hope as pilot training abroad is very expensive for aspiring pilots from India, the liberalised FTO regime would help achieve the larger targets for their training. There are 35 FTOs in the country approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of which one is under the central government, eight are under state governments, and 26 are in private sectors and these FTOs together have 229 aircrafts available for flying training. All 35 FTOs enhancing their flight training capacities, as emphasised by the parliamentary panel, is crucial to match the capex plan of AAI and making India a global hub of fight training. One of the key recommendations made by the committee is ensuring stringent regulatory mechanism to ensure that pilots trained these FTOs are fully capable to fly any aircraft being used in commercial flights without any requirement of undergoing further training on payment basis from the airlines as a precondition for employment. It notes with concern that of the 862 commercial pilot licenses issued by the DGCA in 2021, around 40% of these licenses were issued from foreign FTOs which also indicates the huge foreign exchange loss in the process. The cost of flying training abroad, according to the Ministry is about Rs 1.2 crore for each cadet which results in direct foreign exchange loss to the tune of Rs 500 crores and more pilots getting training in FTOs in the country will reverse the trend. Increase in total flying hours from 1.20 lakh hours during pre-COVID years to 1.21 lakh hours in 2021 are indicative of changes in the ecosystem following liberalisation of the FTOs. The committee harps on the need for utilizing about 200 underutilized airstrips in the country and setting up of flying clubs in all states to achieve the ambitious target of training 10,000 pilots over the next five years. The parliamentary panel has taken a cautious approach on the proposed move by the government to handover the country's largest flying school – Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Academy at Amethi to a private player under the public private partnership model on the ground that no funds have been provided to buy new aircraft over the past five years. The Ministry justifies the move saying the private sector model is giving maximum productivity, but the committee urged the government to intervene and protect the old flying schools which are requiring government attention for revival. The panel says that there is a need to have both private players and government-controlled flying schools to ensure proper check and balance and avoid monopoly of private players in the market of training pilot. An audit of flying training schools revealing serious violation of DGCA norms for safety standards calls for the government to ensure the check and balance under the liberalised pilot training regime.