There are 35 Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)-approved FTOs in India operating at 53 bases, the government informed Parliament on Thursday.

“Currently, there is no special programme in the government to encourage pilot training for women and backward classes including SCs/STs,” Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Gen (Dr) V K Singh said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

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However, 15 per cent of pilots in India are women, which is almost three times the global average of 5 per cent, the Minister said.

Currently, there are 67 Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorization (FATA) holders in India.

As per data received from various Indian scheduled airlines, a total of 244 pilots have been recruited in the year 2021.

As per Industry projections there may be a need for 1000 pilots per annum in India over the next five years. The annual requirement of commercial pilots depends upon various factors such as financial health of an airline, airline expansion plan and growth in the aviation sector.

“As on 01.03.2023, a total of 15,896 regular officials are employed in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) posted across various airports/stations. All AAI employees are Indian nationals,” the minister said.

As per DGCA, there are approximately 10,000 pilots including 67 foreign nationals employed with various airlines of India.