India Expands Pilot Training Capacity as Airline Fleet Growth Accelerates

Domestic training capacity is expanding but airline fleet growth continues to outpace pilot production

India’s pilot training ecosystem is expanding but domestic flying schools continue to face challenges in meeting the requirements of Indian carriers which are adding aircraft at an unprecedented pace. Despite the growth in training capacity and student enrollments, a significant proportion of Indian pilots continue to train overseas before returning to obtain Indian licenses.

Training Demand Continues to Grow

India’s civil aviation sector has one of the largest requirements for trained aircrew anywhere in the world, with a commercial aircraft fleet expected to grow from 800 today to over 2,250 aircraft by 2035. As per estimates by India’s civil aviation ministry nearly 10-12,000 pilots would be required by 2036.

IndiGo which has an over 60% market share of the Indian domestic civil aviation market, has plans to double its fleet size by 2030, by which time it will require 35,000 pilots, cabin crew and maintenance crew, nearly double its 2024 crew strength.

According to information released by India’s civil aviation ministry in February 2026, the overall pilot-to-aircraft ratio across Indian carriers stood at 8.4, ranging from 6.0 at Alliance Air and 7.6 at IndiGo to 9.4 at SpiceJet, while Akasa Air (9.33), Air India (9.1) and Air India Express (8.8) also maintained relatively high staffing levels. These figures suggest that Indian carriers continue to maintain substantial pilot capacity to support fleet growth.

However, domestic training capability remains insufficient to meet projected demand, although both industry and government initiatives are seeking to expand training throughput.

Domestic FTO Capacity Continues to Grow

India has 41 Flying Training Organisations (FTO) approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), out of which 38 are currently operational and operate out of approximately 60 bases across the country. The FTO training aircraft fleet has also grown to 385 aircraft, including 61 inducted during 2025.

DGCA regulations stipulate an Aircraft: Instructor: Student ratio of 1:1:10. Spread across the 41 Indian FTOs, this corresponds to a theoretical training capacity of approximately 3,500 students annually. However, FTO capacity is often impacted by instructors moving to airlines after accumulation of required flying hours. This remains a longstanding challenge for Indian flying schools as airline recruitment often draws experienced instructors away.

India's pilot training ecosystem remains geographically concentrated in a few states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Haryana. While these states are the center of gravity for pilot training in India, towns like Kalaburagi in Karnataka are quietly emerging as important training locations, with multiple FTOs based there.

Some Indian FTOs such as Redbird and Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) at Amethi (Uttar Pradesh) have multi-base operations, but traditional single-airfield flying schools form the bulk of the pilot training ecosystem.

The available data suggests that training infrastructure will need to expand at a faster pace, if it is to keep pace with airline fleet growth.

Gap in Enrollment to CPL Issuance

The training throughput of Indian FTOs can be gauged by the Student Pilot Licenses (SPL) which are issued to Indian students enrolled in FTOs prior to commencement of ab-initio flying training. The number of SPLs issued by DGCA approved FTOs in the last five years has nearly doubled from 1,173 in 2021 to 2,309 in 2025, with a total of 9,069 SPLs issued across that entire period.

However, the number of Commercial Pilot Licenses (CPL) issued to trainees from Indian FTOs is much lower. 1035 CPLs were issued in 2025, in comparison to 744, 578 and 862 CPLs issued in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively. Since 2021, a total of 6,648 CPLs have been issued by the DGCA. While the increase in issuance of SPLs indicates sustained interest in pilot training, the gap between student enrollments and CPL issuance suggests that constraints remain with the training pipeline.

India’s civil aviation ministry also acknowledges that many pilots prefer to complete their ab-initio training outside India before returning to obtain their CPL. As per ministry figures released earlier this year, approximately 40% of CPLs issued since 2016 have been to cadets trained from foreign institutes. In 2025 alone, the DGCA issued 615 CPLs to cadets who trained in foreign FTOs.

The continued reliance on overseas training suggests that India’s domestic training capacity remains insufficient to meet demand, despite the growth in the number of approved FTOs and trainer aircraft. Although the ministry maintains that the sector faces no overall pilot shortage, it acknowledges a shortfall in experienced commanders on certain aircraft types.

This is being addressed by employing foreign pilots under Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorization (FATA). Information released by the ministry, however, shows that Indian airlines are making limited use of foreign flight crew, with only 92 foreign pilots employed across the carriers listed, including 48 at Air India Express, 29 at IndiGo, and 15 at Alliance Air.

Female Pilot Representation Exceeds Global Benchmarks

Indian airlines continue to maintain one of the highest proportions of female pilots globally. According to the IATA’s September 2024 report on ‘Gender in Aviation’ India ranked highest in terms of gender diversity in aviation, with women accounting for 14% of airline pilots in the country as compared to 4.4% and 5.2% in the USA and UK.

Data released by the ministry in March 2026 based on information provided by six major Indian carriers, showed that women accounted for approximately 16.4% of all pilots, with 1,871 female pilots amongst a total pilot workforce of 11,394. IndiGo which had approximately 800 female pilots in late-2024 now has 970, while Air India employs 508.

Indian carriers are faced with the need to recruit pilots at an unprecedented pace to support their fleet expansion even as domestic ab-initio training capacity continues to lag demand. As a result, a significant proportion of aspiring pilots continue to train overseas before returning to obtain their Indian CPL. Whether India’s training ecosystem can scale rapidly enough to meet long-term pilot demand remains one of the key challenges facing the sector over the next decade.