India – The Government of Maharashtra has approved the transfer of management of Nagpur Flying Club (NFC) to Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), with the state-owned aviation infrastructure company set to take responsibility for the flight school’s assets, liabilities, trainees, pilots and associated operations on an “as-is” basis.

Nagpur Flying Club currently has four DGCA-listed single-engine training aircraft: one Cessna 172R, registration VT-ACQ; one Cessna FA152, VT-ENC; and two Cessna 152s, VT-EUK and VT-EUL. It has no multi-engine aircraft. Its FTO approval is valid until November 15, 2028.
The club is currently training approximately 40 student pilots, according to reporting on the state government transfer decision. Two of its four aircraft are described in the underlying government proposal as nearly four decades old, with discontinued production and reduced spare-parts availability increasing maintenance cost and turnaround time.
NFC has already submitted a proposal to the Maharashtra Government to acquire new training aircraft.
The Maharashtra General Administration Department issued the transfer direction on August 25, 2026 following a July 2 proposal from NFC to the Additional Chief Secretary, Civil Aviation. The proposal followed a June 29 board meeting and outlined potential restructuring options including transfer to an aviation-focused government entity, privatisation, a public-private partnership or a joint venture.
The government selected the state-sector option and directed the Divisional Commissioner of Nagpur, who chairs NFC, and MADC’s Vice-Chairman and Managing Director to jointly prepare the detailed transfer modalities for submission to the state government. The transfer framework therefore remains subject to completion of this administrative process.
NFC currently operates from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur and Morwa Airstrip in Chandrapur. The additional Chandrapur base was developed to provide training flexibility as commercial traffic reduced the availability of flying slots at Nagpur Airport.
NFC resumed regular flight training in 2021 following earlier periods of operational disruption. It received renewed government financial support in 2025 and subsequently sought further training infrastructure modernisation, including a flight simulator procurement tender in April 2026.
AFM previously reported that MADC is already supporting a major pilot-training development in Maharashtra through its agreement with Air India for the airline’s new FTO at Amravati Airport. That facility is planned around 34 training aircraft — 31 Piper Archers and three Diamond DA42s — with capacity to train approximately 180 commercial pilots annually at scale.

Source: Government of Maharashtra

Indian State Transfers Flight School to Airport Development Company in 2026

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