Haryana to develop flying clubs on PPP model

Visualising the demand for pilots in the domestic aviation industry, Haryana is developing its flying clubs on a public-private partenership (PPP) model. The project to develop Pinjore and Narnaul flying clubs has been awarded to Gurgaon-based Indo Pacific Aviation last year.

The state government will provide the airfield to the company and the modification of the airfield, construction and other civil works would be done by the company. At present the company operates charter plane service from Palam airport. This would be the company's first flying club in India.

The company will be setting up flying clubs at these places and impart training in commercial pilot licence (CPL), private pilot licence (PPL), aircraft maintainence engineering (AME), etc.

"We are setting up the flying club at Pinjore airport to start with as that is the airport being allotted to us by the Haryana government now for this purpose," Indo-Pacific aviation sources said.

Once the modalities has been finalised, the company has to seek permission from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). They expect that after fulfillment of formalities and seeking no-objection certificate from the DGCA, the work on the project is likely to be kick off by the end of this financial year.

"Quality training is going to be our main forte and it is going to be implemented and maintained by us and our joint venture partner Spartan College of Aeronautics & Technology, Oklahoma, USA. Since we have also signed a trademark agreement with Spartan, USA, the quality of training is going to be assured by them. We will have 5 students for every aircraft. Thus, with a fleet of 6 single engine aircraft, each flying an average of 1,000 hours per year, besides the multi-engine aircraft, we should be able to train approximately 30 pilots per year. As more aircraft are added, we would be able to train more pilots," the source said.

Industry experts said that the aviation industry in India has grown manifold in last few years, which was never expected. Moreover, in next five years, it is expected that nearly 500 aircraft would be inducted in service. So, there is a huge demand in the aviation sector.

According to industry figures, there is shortage of 5,000 pilots in India. Now less than 200 pilots are trained every year in the country. In order to meet the demand, the air carriers are hiring people from outside the country.