Alongside a massive expansion of its fleet, Air India is also set to ramp up its capacity to train new pilots.
On December 19, 2024, ten days after confirming an additional order for 100 Airbus airliners (90 A320neos and 10 A350s), Air India announced a new aircraft order, this time for its newly created flight training school.
Air India has ordered 31 Archer DX aircraft, a single-engine diesel-powered training aircraft, from US manufacturer Piper Aircraft, as well as 3 DA42-VI twin-engine aircraft from Chinese-owned Austria-based Diamond Aircraft.
The DA42-VI is an updated version of Diamond’s popular four-seater twin-engine piston plane training aircraft. It has a jet-fuel powerplant which the manufacturer claims can save up to 50% on fuel, as compared to similar aircraft powered by AVGAS.
“The DA42-VI is designed to make transitioning from single- to multi-engine aircraft training much easier, and Air India’s future cadets will benefit from this. The glass cockpit will help prepare them for their future careers flying large commercial jets,” said Jane Wang, Director of Sales, Marketing, and Flight Ops at Diamond Aircraft Austria, in a press release.
These 34 aircraft, which will start to be delivered in 2025, are due to be based at a new flight training organization that Air India has created in Central India at Belora airport, near Amravati in the state of Maharasthra.
This training academy, from which 180 new pilots will be able to graduate per year. will offer state-of-the-art facilities, a fully digitized operations center and its own maintenance facilities. It will also completement Air India’s Aviation Training Academy, the largest of its kind in South Asia, which occupies some 600,000 sq ft, in the city of Gurugram, near Delhi.