India needs 30K pilots in 20 yrs

New Delhi: India will need 30,000 pilots in the next 15-20 years as domestic airlines have more than 1,700 planes on order as they expand their network, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Tuesday.

Asserting that the ministry is working with a collective approach for the aviation industry, he also said that officials are verifying various aspects of 38 Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) and these organisations will be rated. The minister was speaking at a function to mark the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for an order for 200 trainer aircraft. Indian airlines have placed orders for more than 1,700 aircraft and currently, there are over 800 planes, Naidu said. Presently, there are 6,000-7,000 working pilots and the country will need 30,000 pilots in the next 15 to 20 years, the minister said and also pitched for making India a training hub. India is one of the world’s fastest growing civil aviation markets. According to the minister, efforts are being made to categorise airports, including the possibility of having dedicated airports for cargo and FTOs.

Template model for setting up more airports

With increasing air traffic and expanding aircraft fleet, the government is planning to put in place a ‘template model’ for setting up more airports, including those dedicated for cargo and flying training organisations.

India, one of the world’s fastest-growing civil aviation markets, currently has 159 operational airports, while domestic airlines have placed orders for over 1,700 planes. Against this backdrop, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu on Tuesday said the ministry is “actively working on creating a template model where we can have different kinds of airports”.

The idea is to have different categories of airports, including those for cargo and Flying Training Organisations (FTOs). On the sidelines of an event in the national capital, Naidu said the government is looking to create a multi-model system and that there are a lot of technical aspects involved. To a query on whether more airports are set to be privatised, the minister said privatisation is a separate issue, and the efforts are to create more airports, “Land is a challenge in many places... we are trying to ensure air connectivity to all regions and wherever possible, we can taper down the land requirement (for instance like having) a small airport where we can operate an ATR,” he noted.

Domestic air passenger traffic stood at little over 16.13 crore in 2024 while the current fleet of domestic airlines is over 800 planes.