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India currently graduates approximately 800 commercial pilots a year

Against the backdrop of exponential growth in the Indian aviation sector and a looming shortage of commercial pilots to fly current and future fleets, the global aviation education and training group — Airways Aviation — has announced the coming together of a new strategic alliance with India’s Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy Limited (APFT).

Rizwan Taj, pilot instructor and the new Indian territory manager at Airways Aviation also spoke about the coming pilot shortage. "India currently graduates approximately 800 commercial pilots a year against a demand that will more than double with the airline expansions on the anvil. Indian airlines have acknowledged the pilot shortage from the past years, and anticipate that if not addressed, it will hamper the growing demands for air travel."

The Dubai headquartered Airways Aviation and Hyderabad-based Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy Limited (APFT, recently signed a new strategic partnership deal that will provide prospective Indian students and airline cadets access to a new and innovative pilot pathway programme from May 2023.

Romy Hawatt, founder and chairman at Airways Aviation Group, said: “Locating the right resourced and ready to go, local partner is an essential component to the success of any venture in a vast territory like India, and on balance, with APFT, we feel we have found the right organisation to grow and develop our strategic plans with. The new Airways Aviation offices will be located at the GMR Aero Towers within the Hyderabad aero city economic zone and we plan to start delivering our bespoke pilot foundation programme to prospective aviators from May 2023.”

“APFT has been actively seeking out the world’s best aviation training operators and adapting the best international standards and practices consistent with the Indian DGCA requirements and regulations and among the many pilot training organisations out there, only a handful can be considered world class. The triple A rated, Airways Aviation Group has trained well over 8,000 pilots, have the largest global footprint of any privately owned aviation academy and also have one of the world’s largest privately owned training fleets of aircraft, “ says Hemanth DP, CEO of APFT.