Air India-Airbus pilot training centre to install 10 simulators
Union Minister for Civil Aviation K Rammohan Naidu
| Photo Credit:
RAJU V
The Air India–Airbus Pilot Training Centre will install 10 simulators with a planned investment of over ₹1,000 crore, said Union Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu.
The state-of-the-art facility was inaugurated by Minister Naidu at Air India’s Aviation Training Academy in Gurugram, Haryana.
“Through this joint venture, 10 cutting-edge simulators, including India’s first A350 simulators, will be installed with a planned investment of over ₹1,000 crore,” he said on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Accordingly, the facility will train more than 5,000 new pilots over the next decade to support the exponential growth of commercial aviation in India.
The facility is designed to train pilots for the Airbus A320 and A350 aircraft families, and its courses are approved by both the DGCA and EASA.
“The facility is currently equipped with two Full Flight Simulators for Airbus A320 family aircraft. The remaining six A320 simulators and two A350 simulators will be installed progressively,” Air India said in a statement.
Notably, businessline was the first to report last week that Air India was on the verge of launching an in-house flight simulator facility at its Gurugram-based academy to boost pilot training capacity.
The facility is expected to become a critical asset for Air India, as it is in the midst of a fleet expansion with more than 500 aircraft on order.
Currently, Air India has around 3,500 pilots and a fleet of nearly 200 aircraft, including narrow-body Airbus A320 family jets and wide-body Boeing 777s and 787 Dreamliners.
Apart from type-rating training, the facility will also help in providing recurrent training for existing pilots.
“Air India is in an expansion mode with 570 new aircraft on order, and the new pilot training centre at our Aviation Training Academy in Gurugram, a part of which is being executed with Airbus, will help train and upskill pilots who will fuel Air India’s ambition of becoming a world-class airline,” Air India MD and CEO Campbell Wilson was quoted in a statement.
“This facility is a major step forward in our transformation journey and in making Air India and the Indian aviation industry more self-reliant. With our partners Airbus, we are playing our part in building the aviation infrastructure that India needs as one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets.”
Presently, industry estimates that India would require an additional 10,000 pilots over the next decade, nearly doubling the current strength of around 12,000 licensed commercial pilots in the country.
However, limited simulator capacity has led Indian airlines to rely heavily on overseas simulator facilities in countries such as the UAE, Malaysia, and Singapore, leading to higher training costs and logistical challenges.
Published on September 30, 2025
