Air India orders 34 trainer aircraft for its flying school

Air India orders 34 trainer aircraft for new flying training school in Amravati, set to open in 2025.

Air India has ordered 34 trainer aircraft for its upcoming flying training school in Amravati that is expected to open from the second half of 2025, the airline announced on Thursday (December 19, 2024).

The order includes 31 single-engine aircraft from Piper Aircraft in the United States and three multi-engine aircraft from Diamond Aircraft in Austria.

The delivery of the training aircraft will start from 2025. Air India’s flying training organisation, which is the first to be launched by a commercial airline in the country, will be set up at Amravati’s Belora airport after it bagged a tender floated by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited for this purpose. To be developed at a cost of ₹200 crore, the school will be spread over ten acres of land. It has set a target of graduating 180 commercial pilots every year.

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“The new FTO is a strategic move to exponentially expand our training infrastructure and our commitment to building a self-reliant ecosystem of qualified pilots for both Air India and the Indian aviation industry,” a press statement from the airline quoted Sunil Bhaskaran, Director, Aviation Academy, Air India.

While a FTO provides ab initio training, or training from scratch, Air India has also opened a new Aviation Training Academy for advanced flying training and refresher courses for serving pilots which is spread of 6,00,000 square feet in Gurugram. This facility will boast of 20 flight simulators of the Airbus A320 Family, A350, Boeing 777, Boeing 787, and Boeing 737 family.