Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma recently inaugurated the first Flying Training Organization (FTO) for the North Eastern Region in Lilabari. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Lilabari in Assam is amongst nine FTOs to be established in five airports in the country by the month of June 2022, which includes Belagavi and Kalaburagi in Karnataka, Jalgaon in the state of Maharashtra and Khajuraho in MP. The ministry said Redbird Aviation has won the right to set up the FTO at Lilabari. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has leased land for the FTO as well as facilitated statutory approvals from DGCA and BCAS. With these FTOs, India will aim to become a global hub for the training of pilots.
At present, at Lilabari, Redbird Aviation has stationed two aircraft for flying training- Tecnam P2008JC Single Engine and Tecnam P2006T Multi-engine, which according to the ministry, would eventually be increased to five by the end of the year. In the FTO of Lilabari, Ground Classes (Online mode and Offline mode), Drone flying training, Practical flying training, Simulator training on Alsim Level-5 Simulator as well as A320 Fixed Base Simulator will take place for a single batch of ten students which will be increased to 20 students.
The enrolment process in the FTO will take place with an online entrance exam which is held every few months. Interested applicants need to be above 18 years and they should have completed their 12 class board exams with English, Maths and Physics. Once the training is completed, students can be employed in Airlines, Private charter services, Government pilot jobs, Air ambulances, Cargo/freighter services.
According to Scindia, with the opening of this FTO in Lilabari, the youth of the Northeastern region will get the opportunity to attain Knowledge and Speed. The minister said 40 per cent of India’s pilots get trained aboard which results in the loss of around Rs 500 crore of foreign exchange. In order to reduce this, the government has decided to open up nine new FTO by this year and 15 new FTOs will be established in the next stage, taking the current number of FTOs in the country from 34 to 58, he added.
