Air India has received approval from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to operate a flying academy at Belora Airport in Amravati, Maharashtra. The facility is the first flying training organisation established by an Indian airline in the country. Designed for up to 180 cadets at a time, it will add pilot-training capacity alongside the airline’s existing training centre in Gurugram; no start date for training operations has been confirmed.
The 10-acre campus is planned to include 34 aircraft: 31 single-engine and three twin-engine trainers. Its facilities include classrooms, student accommodation, a digital operations and dispatch centre, and dedicated aircraft maintenance facilities.
Air India’s published programme information describes an 18-month course with 200 flight hours: 185 on single-engine aircraft and 15 on multi-engine aircraft. The academy is intended to address demand for pilots as India’s aviation sector expands. The approval is new, while the location and planned training operation had been announced earlier.