Tata Group-owned Air India on July 1 said it will set up a training institute at Amravati in Maharashtra with an aim to train 180 commercial pilots annually.

“The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)-licensed Flight Training Organisation (FTO) at the Belora Airport will be the largest such institute in South Asia and become operational from the first quarter of next financial year,” Air India said in a statement.

According to the airline, the upcoming facility will be the first by any Indian airline in the country and will have 31 single-engine aircraft and three twin-engine aircraft for training.

Air India said it has got the tender from the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) to establish and operate the facility for 30 years.

“The FTO at Amravati will be a significant step towards making Indian aviation more self-reliant and offering more opportunities to the youth in India to fulfil their ambitions of flying as pilots. The young pilots coming out of this FTO will fuel Air India’s ambition of becoming a world-class airline, as it moves ahead in its transformation journey,” said Campbell Wilson, Managing Director and CEO at Air India.

“The facility, which will be developed on 10 acres, will have digitally-enabled classrooms, hostels on a par with global academies, a digitised operation centre, and a maintenance unit,” Air India said.

“The FTO will be operational by Q1 FY26 and offer aspiring pilots an opportunity to undergo training with world-class curricula on a par with best-in-class global schools,” said Sunil Bhaskaran, Director, Aviation Academy, Air India.

The collaborative initiative between MADC and Air India will not only boost the economy of Maharashtra by focussing on more than 3,000 new employment opportunities within the aviation sector, but also create employment in multifarious allied activities in skilling, technical and small entrepreneurial ventures culminating in an impressive contribution of more than ₹1,000 crore to the State’s GDP over the next decade,” said Swati Pandey, vice-chairman & Managing Director of MADC.

Representative image.
| Photo Credit: G.P. Sampath Kumar

Aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked airlines to ensure that children up to the age of 12 years are allocated seats with at least one of their parents or guardians in a flight.

The directive comes against the backdrop of instances of children below the age of 12 years were not seated along with their parents or guardians during flights.

“Airlines shall ensure that children up to the age of 12 years are allocated seats with at least one of their parents/guardians, who are travelling on the same PNR and a record of the same shall be maintained,” the DGCA said in a statement on April 23.

In this regard, the regulator has revised the Air Transport Circular titled, ‘unbundle of services and fees by scheduled airlines’.

As per the norms, some services like zero baggage, preferential seating, meals/ snack/ drink charges and charges for carriage of musical instruments are permitted.

The DGCA said that such unbundled services are provided on an “opt-in” basis by airlines and are not mandatory in nature.

“There is also a provision for auto seat assignment to the passengers who have not selected any seat for web check-in before scheduled departure,” the statement said.

India is one of the world’s fastest growing civil aviation markets and domestic air traffic is on the rise.

A pedestrian walks past the Air India building in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on September 21 said it has suspended the approval of Air India’s Flight Safety Chief for one month for certain lapses.

On July 25 and 26, the regulator’s team carried out the surveillance of Air India in the areas of internal audit, accident prevention work and availability of required technical manpower.

The surveillance found deficiencies in the accident prevention work carried out by the organisation and the availability of the requisite technical man power as required in the approved Flight Safety Manual and the relevant Civil Aviation Requirements, the DGCA said in a release.

“The approval of Chief of Flight Safety of Air India has been suspended for a period of one month for the lapses established,” it said.

A pedestrian walks past the Air India building in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on September 21 said it has suspended Tata Group-owned Air India’s Flight Safety Chief Rajeev Gupta for one month for certain lapses.

On July 25 and 26, the regulator’s team carried out the surveillance of Air India in the areas of internal audit, accident prevention work and availability of required technical manpower.

The surveillance found deficiencies in the accident prevention work carried out by the organisation and the availability of the requisite technical manpower as required in the approved Flight Safety Manual and the relevant Civil Aviation Requirements, the DGCA said in a release.

“The approval of Chief of Flight Safety of Air India has been suspended for a period of one month for the lapses established,” it said.

Mr. Rajeev Gupta is the Chief of Flight Safety Air India Ltd.

In the past also, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had cracked the whip against the full-service private carrier for various alleged violations and lapses. Last month, the regulator suspended for 10 days the ATO approval to Air India’s training facilities in Mumbai and Hyderabad for certain lapses in simulator training.

“Further it was observed that some of the internal audit/spot checks claimed to be carried out by the airline were done in a perfunctory manner and not as per the regulatory requirements,” the DGCA said in its statement on September 21.

The DGCA said, after reviewing the action taken report submitted by the airline, it issued show-cause notices to the concerned post holders.

“Based on the review of the replies received, the airline has been directed not to assign any audits/surveillance/spot checks pertaining to compliance of DGCA requirements to the particular auditor involved in the perfunctory inspections which indicates lack of diligence,” it said.

In February this year, the regulator had ordered the removal of Air India subsidiary AIX Connect (earlier AirAsia India) head of training, from his position for a period of three months, violating certain norms relating to the pilots training.

Besides, it had imposed a penalty of ₹20 lakh on the airline, as well as a fine of ₹3 lakh each on eight designated examiners..

A two-member inspection team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has found lapses in internal safety audits of Air India and the regulator is probing the matter, according to officials.

When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said that all airlines are subject to regular safety audits by regulators and other bodies.

“Air India actively engages in such audits to continually assess and strengthen our processes,” the spokesperson said in a statement and added that the airline directly addresses any matters raised with the authority concerned.

According to the inspection report submitted to the DGCA, the airline was supposed to carry out regular safety spot checks in various areas of operations such as cabin surveillance, cargo, ramp and load but during a random inspection of 13 safety points, the team found that the airline prepared false reports in all 13 cases.

“Moreover, when cross-verified with CCTV, recordings, auditee statements, shift register documents, GD (General Declaration) list, passenger manifest etc, it is understood that all the aforesaid 13 spot checks shown to be carried out in stations Mumbai, Goa and Delhi were verified and were established to have not been actually performed,” the two-member team said in the ‘Deficiency Reporting Form’ (DRF).

The inspection found that these reports “were subsequently prepared/falsified when demanded by the DGCA team”.

Further, the inspection report noted that these forged spot check reports were not signed by the Chief of Flight Safety (CFS) who has the authority to do it.

The team visited Air India’s office in Gurugram in Haryana on July 25 and 26, and after inspection, they mentioned the lapses in the DRF.

When contacted, DGCA Director General Vikram Dev Dutt said the matter is being investigated by the regulator.

According to the inspection report, the checklists were physically signed by an auditor from the Quality Management System (QMS) Department which does not fall under the approval and inspection scope of the DGCA and has different eligibility criteria/qualification industry standards.

The inspection report said the team did not find any written communication for the delegation of authority to the auditor. “Also other than verbal confirmation by CFS, there were no email correspondences and authorisation by the CFS for the aforementioned sport checks,” it said.

As per the inspection report, regarding the Pre-Flight Medical Examination (alcohol consumption test of pilots), Air India claimed that it carried out the spot check but the team found that the airline’s internal auditor “had not physically visited the facility which is mandatory to satisfy many items of the checklist”.

“Also, the equipment details and test readings have not been noted on the checklist. Merely, all the points have been marked as satisfactory without actually performing the spot check,” it said.

With respect to ramp services, the inspection team found that the airline’s spot check list mentioned the name of a person as the duty officer but there was no such person in the said shift.

“It has also been confirmed by the auditee department that there were no spot checks carried out on the subject date in the said area. Merely, all the points have been marked as satisfactory without actually performing the spot check,” it said.

As far as spot check in cabin surveillance was concerned, the inspection team found that the airline claimed to have done it on July 16, 2023, but it was not done and “the claimed auditor was merely travelling in the said flight as a passenger with family members”.

Further, the inspection team said the airline was unable to provide the flight safety auditors list on time.

“Subsequently, the list was only provided at the end of the inspection which included the auditors of QMS as well whose qualification/eligibility is different from that stipulated in the FSM (Flight Safety Manual). As the QMS does not come under the ambit of DGCA, the CAR (Civil Aviation Requirements) doesn’t specify the qualifications of the QMS auditors,” the team said.

Further, the operator was unable to provide the actual flight safety auditors’ list and their authorisations when sought by the inspection team to differentiate the flight safety from the QMS auditors, it added.

“All aviation companies, including Air India, are subject to regular safety audits by regulators and other bodies both in India and overseas.

“Air India actively engages in such audits to continually assess and strengthen our processes. We directly address any matters raised with the authority concerned,” the Air India spokesperson said in the statement.