Air India and Airbus have opened a new pilot training centre at the Air India Aviation Training Academy in Gurugram, Haryana. The facility will train more than 5,000 pilots over the next ten years. It will support the rapid expansion of commercial aviation in India.
The facility will train more than 5,000 pilots over the next ten years and will support the rapid expansion of commercial aviation in India. The centre is a 50:50 joint venture which was inaugurated by the Civil Aviation Minister, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, who was also joined by Airbus executive Christian Scherer, Air India chief Campbell Wilson, and senior leaders from Tata Group and Airbus. The new building covers 12,000 square metres and will house ten full-flight simulators for Airbus A320 and A350 aircraft. Classrooms and briefing rooms will support the simulators and two A320 simulators are already in place, while six more A320 simulators and two for the A350 will follow in stages.
The courses meet standards set by both India’s DGCA and Europe’s EASA, while Air India is consolidating training from different sites into the Gurugram academy. This will make it South Asia’s largest aviation training hub. Set up in 2024, the academy already trains more than 2,000 aviation staff every day and over the coming years it is expected to prepare more than 50,000 professionals, including pilots, cabin crew, engineers, ground staff, and security teams.
Training is delivered with advanced equipment with a strong focus on safety, while the investment goes beyond Gurugram. Air India is developing South Asia’s largest Flying Training Organisation at Amravati in Maharashtra and the FTO will train up to 180 commercial pilots each year at Belora airport. A new Basic Maintenance Training Organisation is also planned near Air India’s MRO hub in Bengaluru.
From FY27, it will run a two-year certified AME programme followed by two years of on-job training, which will build a pipeline of skilled engineers for India’s fast-growing aviation industry.
