As domestic airlines prepare for one of the largest aircraft induction cycles globally, the country’s aviation sector is grappling with a widening gap between demand for pilots and the capacity of the training ecosystem to supply them — particularly at the command level.
According to aviation consultancy CAPA, carriers will need around 10,900 additional pilots by 2030, or roughly 1,600 every year, to operate the expanding fleet. Yet the problem is not a lack of licences alone.
While flying schools continue to produce hundreds of first officers annually, airlines say the real shortage is of experienced captains, creating a structural mismatch that investment alone may not immediately resolve.
Command Gap
“We have 36 academies producing pilots, but they are largely left on their own. On one hand, airlines say there is a shortage.
On the other hand, pilots are moving around with CVs, willing to take even clerical jobs. The mismatch is glaring,” Lokesh Sharma, senior aviation and defence analyst, told FE. He pointed out that while flying schools may graduate around 200 pilots a year, barely half find cockpit placements.
Neville Bharucha, who runs Carver Aviation, said roughly 70% of his academy’s graduates are placed with airlines, while the rest either move into other aviation roles or seek opportunities overseas.
Airlines argue that the bottleneck lies at the captain level. “There is no shortage of co-pilots. The shortage is only of captains,” an Air India executive said, adding that more than 1,200 new co-pilots enter the system annually.
Becoming a captain typically requires between 2,500 and 6,000 flying hours, translating into six to ten years of experience. This long progression period has created a structural gap just as fleet sizes are ballooning. The problem has been exacerbated by the steady migration of experienced commanders to West Asian and Southeast Asian carriers offering higher pay, better rosters and tax advantages. The issue has been significant enough for the government to raise it at the International Civil Aviation Organisation, seeking a global framework to curb aggressive pilot poaching.
Scaling the Ecosystem
In response, airlines and aviation groups have begun investing heavily in training infrastructure. Air India, along with Airbus, inaugurated a pilot training centre in Gurugram in September 2025, which aims to train around 5,000 pilots over the next decade. The Tata Group airline is also setting up what it says will be South Asia’s largest flight training academy in Amravati, backed by an investment of about Rs 200 crore, with a planned capacity of 180 pilots a year and a fleet of 34 trainer aircraft.
Adani Defence Systems has also entered the space by acquiring a majority stake in Flight Simulation Technique Centre at an enterprise value of `820 crore. The company operates 11 full-flight simulators and flying schools in Haryana. IndiGo, for its part, continues to expand its cadet pilot programme, partnering with overseas and domestic schools to train pilots through a structured 21-month course. The airline says it has inducted over 1,000 pilots through such tie-ups over the past 13 years.
Despite these efforts, industry executives say capacity constraints run deeper. The civil aviation regulator, DGCA, itself faces manpower shortages, with nearly half its technical positions vacant. This has slowed licence renewals and command upgrade checks, delaying pilots’ progression and adding to the bottleneck.
Training quality remains another concern. In the regulator’s first-ever ranking of flying training organisations, none received an A or A+ grade. Thirteen were placed in the B category, while 22 fell into the lowest C category. Even the government-run Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi was graded at the bottom tier.
“It is extremely difficult for smaller players to build high-quality training institutions because of the lack of a strong maintenance and repair ecosystem,” Mohammed Hanif, former DGCA official, said. Aircraft often have to be sent abroad for maintenance, driving up costs and disrupting training schedules, he said.
As a result, a large share of aspiring pilots continue to train overseas. Several pilots estimate that nearly 60% of new Indian pilots now obtain their licences abroad, citing better aircraft, instructors and less congested airspace. “Training overseas is more structured and efficient. Here, airspace congestion itself becomes a constraint,” said a first officer who trained in Australia and West Asia.
Costs remain a major barrier. A commercial pilot licence in India typically costs around Rs 50 lakh, with type ratings adding another Rs 15-20 lakh. Cadet programmes can cost up to Rs 1 crore, forcing families to rely on large education loans or asset sales. “No one has this kind of money lying around,” a junior pilot said.
Concerns over governance have also surfaced. In late 2023, Redbird Aviation faced scrutiny after multiple accidents and allegations of regulatory impropriety involving a senior official, further denting confidence in the training ecosystem.
Meanwhile, airline scheduling practices are adding strain. Pilots say tight rosters and short-notice duties are becoming common as carriers stretch available manpower. Aviation experts warn that this has safety implications, given that fatigue remains a leading global risk factor.
While new investment is beginning to address capacity gaps, industry executives said that without regulatory reform, stronger oversight and faster upgrade pathways, the pilot shortage is likely to persist even as aircraft deliveries accelerate.