Market Intelligence: Indian Subcontinent

Global Pilot Training Group AeroGuard Flight Training Center Selected by Air India to Train Pilots for the Airline’s Fly High Cadet Pilot Program

AeroGuard Flight Training Center, a renowned global leader in professional ab initio flight training, is proud to announce its selection by Air India to train the Indian flag carrier’s student pilots within its Fly High Cadet Pilot Program. This agreement demonstrates a significant milestone for AeroGuard and Air India as the two organizations share a commitment to high quality flight training and supporting the growing airline industry in India.

Within this new partnership, AeroGuard will train the next generation of pilots for Air India through a custom-developed course where students will obtain FAA licenses ready for DGCA conversion. Through AeroGuard’s high-quality curriculum, experienced instructors, expansive training facilities and capacity, AeroGuard will play a pivotal role in supporting the world class airline’s aggressive growth plans. Following Air India recruitment and screening, pilot cadets will complete Ground School in India before training at AeroGuard’s flagship Phoenix, Arizona campus that offers an ideal flight training environment with 350+ VFR days a year, extensive local airspace, and consistent student support.

To support this high demand for its training, AeroGuard has been expanding its capacity and plans to train up to 2,000 student pilots across its three U.S. campuses. As part of this growth, AeroGuard recently placed a 90 aircraft order with Piper Aircraft, significantly increasing their current fleet of 100 planes, alongside plans to add a further 25 planes throughout 2024. Additionally, AeroGuard maintains a current population of 200+ instructors, with an additional 600+ U.S. students training to be instructors, as part of their path to 1,500 Hours for airline employment in the U.S..

AeroGuard Flight Training Center’s CEO, Joel Davidson stated, “AeroGuard is honored to be selected by Air India as their preferred flight training provider for their Cadet Pilot Program. This partnership not only validates our commitment to delivering exceptional training for leading airlines worldwide, but also demonstrates our dedication to supporting the growth of the aviation industry in India. AeroGuard is excited to contribute to the success of Air India’s future pilots and establish long and successful careers for hundreds of student pilots.”

As a leading airline in the rapidly expanding travel industry in India, this is a significant leap towards ensuring a consistent skilled pool of next-generation cadets and bridging the First Officer gap. By partnering with institutions like AeroGuard, Air India seeks to maintain stringent quality standards for cadet training while proactively securing future talent pipelines.  Embracing its role as a pivotal player in India’s thriving travel industry, Air India has embarked on a transformative journey. As the airline gears up for expansion, the demand for skilled pilots is poised to surge. AeroGuard’s distinguished curriculum has been meticulously crafted to equip cadet pilots with the requisite skills, knowledge, and confidence to fulfill Air India’s ambitious plans.

About AeroGuard Flight Training Center

AeroGuard Flight Training Center is a global leader in ab initio flight training with three U.S. campuses. Each location offers accelerated commercial pilot training programs to candidates from all over the world. With a commitment to safety and student success, AeroGuard’s high quality training has established airline-ready cadets for over 20 years with more than one million flight hours of training experience and graduating over 7,000 cadets.

About Air India

Founded by the legendary JRD Tata, Air India pioneered India’s aviation sector. Since its first flight on October 15, 1932, Air India has built an extensive domestic network with non-stop flights to cities around the world, across the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Far-East, South-East Asia, Australia, and the Gulf. After 69 years as a government-owned enterprise, Air India and Air India Express were welcomed back into the Tata group in January 2022.

Air India is navigating through a major five-year transformation roadmap under the aegis of Vihaan.AI, with an ambition to become a world class airline with an Indian heart. The first phase of this transformation, the taxi phase was recently concluded, and focused on fixing the basics. These included bringing back to service many long grounded aircraft, addition of talent across flying and ground functions, rapid upgradation of technology and strengthening of customer care initiatives amongst others. A member of Star Alliance, the largest global airline consortium of leading international airlines, Air India offers seamless connectivity and facilities to passengers all over the world.

Source: AeroGuard Flight Training Center
Photo Credit: AeroGuard Flight Training Center

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Global Airline Training Provider AAG Announces New Partnership with Indian FTO Blue Ray Aviation – Extending Operations in India

Alpha Aviation Group (AAG), a leading global provider of aviation training, is announcing a significant expansion of its operations in India, a key growth area for the business.

AAG is signing a Memorandum of Understanding at the Singapore Airshow with Gujrat, India based Blue Ray Aviation, a flight training organisation approved by the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), to provide end-to-end training for commercial pilots. Blue Ray Aviation operating from the Mehsana airfield, operates a fleet of C172s and a Piper Seneca at state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities.

The joint venture will provide a one-stop training solution for airlines, streaming Blue Ray’s commercial pilot license (CPL) graduates to the AAG Centre for Aviation Training (ACAT) in Chennai, run in partnership with Anemos Aviation, where the CPL pilots are type rated on airline passenger aircraft.

In another highlight, ACAT has signed a purchase agreement with SIM International to acquire an A320 Neo Standard V2.1 simulator, ensuring that the training centre provides cutting-edge training opportunities for the Indian market. The centre in Chennai is currently operating at capacity and ACAT is investing heavily in advanced Level D flight simulators to meet the continuing rise in demand. ACAT plans to add a third A320 to its fleet in 2025, alongside a B737 Max.

Nearly 1,500 new commercial pilots will be required each year for the next three years as the airline industry in India continues to grow. Currently, 810 commercial aircraft are operating in India, but that number will increase to 1,430 by 2027, a 76% increase over three years.

ACAT is further expanding its training footprint in India by venturing into cabin crew training. ACAT is proud to announce the inauguration of its premier cabin crew training centre in Siliguri, strategically located as the gateway to the North-East states of India. With India set to receive more than 1,000 aircraft deliveries in the next decade, the demand for skilled cabin crew is estimated to exceed 25,000 personnel, and Siliguri is poised to become a pivotal hub for cabin crew recruitment.

The centre features the first A320 mock-up in the region, providing students with an immersive training experience, and has capacity to train 500 students annually. It is spearheaded by industry veteran Arlene Marwah, who brings more than 40 years of experience in aviation including leadership roles in Inflight Service Departments at multiple airlines.

AAG’s increased investment in India comes after a record post-Covid year for AAG (Philippines) with pilot cadet enrolments in the market increasing year-on-year by 55% in 2023. AAG has also announced new ventures in Singapore as it expands across Asia Pacific.

AAG Group COO Cristopher Magdangal said: “India is a very significant market for AAG because there is huge pent-up demand, and we are ramping up our operations accordingly. AAG has earned an outstanding reputation in Asia Pacific as a leading pilot training provider, committed to the highest standards. We are proud to work with major airlines across the region and we look forward to building new relationships with partners in India. Our partnership with Blue Ray Aviation, together with further investments in our existing facilities, will provide airlines with an end-to-end training offering. We are increasing our capacity so that we can cater to the growing needs of leading airlines; we are already delivering localised A320 training and in the future, we also plan to offer training on B737 Max Full Flight Simulators”.

Blue Ray Aviation Chairman Rajiv Gandhi said: “We are delighted to announce this joint venture with AAG, and we are excited by the potential to grow our partnership because our offering is unique in the Indian market. By combining our resources and expertise, we can offer a complete pilot training solution for the industry. We are confident that this offering will be very attractive to our existing partners and will help solve capacity issues in the industry”.

About Alpha Aviation Group

AAG is a leading provider of aviation training solutions, working with airlines across the globe. It specializes in cadet assessment and selection, type ratings and flagship ab-initio cadet programs. All these are tailored and optimized to the operational needs of its partner airlines.

AAG Centre for Aviation Training (ACAT), India is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) offering training on Airbus A320 Full Flight Simulator.

The domestic and Southeast Asian markets are served from AAG’s base in the Philippines where they operate an Approved Training Organization (ATO) and a certified Type Rating Training Organization (TRTO) for the Airbus A320. It also has the only EASA-certified Level D Airbus A320 Full Flight Simulator in its Philippine platform. In February 2024, AAG (Singapore) announced a joint venture in Indonesia with FlyBest Academy.

Source: Alpha Aviation Group

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Boeing Makes Appointment for CBTA Regulatory Lead ME Asia

Global aircraft manufacturer Boeing has appointed Captain Siddharth Bhardwaj as the new CBTA Regulatory Lead ME Asia. Captain Bhardwaj was previously Head of Training and Chief Pilot-Fleet at Boeing B737MAX Indian operator Akasa Air.  Learn more about Boeing or Bhardwaj by connecting with him through his LinkedIn profile here.

Source: Siddharth Bhardwaj (Boeing)
Photo Credit: Boeing (shown as meta image)

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Aircraft Manufacturer Embraer Shares 2024 Perspectives

Brazil-based global aircraft manufacturer Embraer, the third largest commercial jet manufacturer, shared its perspectives for 2024.

  • 64 commercial aircraft deliveries for 2023
  • This is one unit short of its planned 65 to 70 target but it’s still 12% more than 2022
  • Goal is to return to around 90 annual deliveries which we achieved in 2018 and 2019
  • 2023 revenue was nearly the same as 2019, it is still only at 70% of pre-pandemic output
  • Working with suppliers to grow this year’s output target by double digits
  • “One sticking point is the pilot shortage. Fewer available pilots favours interest in bigger narrowbodies, and that creates a gap between those aircraft and the regional fleet. There have been a few soft years but the shortage seems to be resolving itself. That implies that we’ll see more demand for smaller narrowbodies which should fill in that gap. In the meantime, orders for the E175 in the USA remain strong since there isn’t movement on pilot scope clauses.”

Source: Embraer
Photo Credit: Embraer

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