THE FUTURE OF PILOT TRAINING: WHY INDIA NEEDS ITS SIMULATORS

India is at the cusp of an aviation boom. But the availability of trained pilots is still a key issue confronting the sector. KHUSHBEG JATTANA, General Manager for Simaero India, articulates the need for training pilots in India, to save foreign currency, save costs, prevent inordinate delays and avoid the inconvenience faced by airlines training pilots abroad.

- Khushbeg Jattana

The aviation sector insider also insists that by investing in world-class simulators, India can cut costs, boost efficiency and become a regional pilot training hub too.

India's aviation sector is booming, and everyone wants a piece of the sky. Airlines are placing record-breaking aircraft orders, new regional airlines are being launched, airports are expanding at a frantic pace, and there's an unmistakable optimism in the air. But here's the catch. Amid this rapid expansion of the aviation sector, for India's civil aviation story to truly soar into the stratosphere, the country needs many more trained pilots.

And therein lies the problem.

We need pilots. Lots of them. But pilots don't just materialise out of thin air. They need rigorous training, and that training doesn’t just happen in conventional classrooms. It happens in state-of-the-art flight simulator facilities. That's where India has been traditionally lagging, playing catch-up for far too long.

For decades, airlines in India have been sending their pilots abroad, to destinations in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or Europe—for initial type rating, left seat/captain upgrades and recurrent simulator training. There was no other way. That's because, as of now, these are the countries where extensive and up-to-date pilot training facilities are available and also because many of the domestically available simulators are operating at capacity. For a country touted to be poised as the third-largest aviation market in the world, the lack of adequate facilities for pilot training is an Achilles' heel that needs addressing.

Let's talk numbers.