India will require 1,000 commercial pilots every year over next 5-6 years: VK Singh

India might require 1,000 commercial pilots per year over the next 5-6 years, Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh said in Lok Sabha today. Stating the developments in the aviation segment, Singh mentioned that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) received bids for nine Flying Training Organisations (FTO) in March last year despite COVID-19 crisis.

On being asked about the progress in the bidding process, the minister stated that AAI had issued award letters for all the nine FTOs on May 31, 2021 and October 29, 2021. The five airports allotted were Belagavi (Karnataka), Jalgaon (Maharashtra), Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh) and Lilabari (Assam).

The soft launch two FTOs at Kalaburagi was done on August 15, 2021, he stated.

Singh even mentioned that in the second round of FTO creation, tender for 15 FTOs are in progress at 10 airports namely Cooch Behar, Tezu, Jharsuguda, Deoghar, Meerut, Kishangarh, Hubli, Kadapa, Bhavnagar and Salem airports.

The minister mentioned that there is currently no government proposal to set up a flying institute in Telangana state.

According to a report by PTI, the Civil Aviation Ministry declared that AAI has received revenues worth around Rs 13,439 crore from Delhi and Mumbai airports in the last five financial years.

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