Pilot crunch: India needs 30,000 pilots as 1,700 aircraft await delivery; Union aviation minister flags urgent training push
India will require as many as 30,000 additional pilots to operate the 1,700 aircraft currently on order with Boeing and Airbus, Union Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu said on Saturday, underscoring the scale of workforce expansion needed for the country’s rapidly growing aviation market.Speaking at a session on the sidelines of the CII Partnership Summit, Naidu said the current ecosystem of Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) is inadequate to meet future demand, with only limited pilot output annually, PTI quoted.India presently has about 8,000 pilots for a fleet of 834 aircraft, but 2,000–3,000 of them are not actively flying, he noted. With airlines expanding aggressively, staffing requirements will multiply.“To run one aircraft in a proper schedule, you need at least 10 to 15 pilots. So for 1,700 planes, the requirement would be around 25,000 to 30,000 pilots. That is the demand that is going to be generated,” Naidu said.Push for more training capacityThe minister stressed the need to scale up skilling infrastructure. “It is very, very important for us to train our individuals and to have the skilling and training ecosystem perfectly done in the country,” he said. Each aviation job, he added, creates 15 indirect jobs, far higher than the IATA estimate of six.Cargo airports under considerationNaidu also said the Centre is studying a FedEx-style model of dedicated cargo airports, acknowledging that air cargo has been losing out to cheaper road and rail options, while airport operators prioritise passenger facilities.Aerospace manufacturing targetsHe highlighted India’s growing capability in aerospace manufacturing, with domestic firms currently producing USD 2 billion worth of components and targeting USD 4 billion by 2030.India’s long-term ambition of designing and manufacturing a full aircraft domestically is also gaining momentum, Naidu said. “We see that India has come to the stage where we can manufacture, we can design, we can maintain our own aircraft today. That is one area we are actively working on.”Record air trafficThe minister noted that 4.8 lakh passengers fly across India on an average day, and 5.3 lakh travellers flew on November 10, marking a new milestone for domestic aviation.
