India must train own aviation workforce, not rely on foreign pilots: Naidu

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said India wants to train its own pilots and engineers rather than import a foreign workforce to meet the demands of the country's rapidly growing aviation sector. Chairing the ministry's Parliamentary Consultative Committee in Mysuru, the first such meeting held outside Delhi in a decade, Naidu said Indian airlines have placed aircraft orders at an unprecedented global scale, and those planes will need a skilled, safety-conscious workforce.

The committee also reviewed the transformation of the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) at Amethi, which has achieved a budget surplus for the first time after more than two decades of deficits. Aircraft utilisation at IGRUA has reached 1,765 flying hours per aircraft annually, above the global benchmark of about 1,500 hours. The number of Flying Training Organisations (FTOs) has risen from 32 in 2020 to 41 in 2026, with flying bases expanding from 32 to 63.

Naidu noted that India invested around Rs 10,000 crore in airport development and viability gap funding in the last ten years, and has awarded Rs 28,840 crore under the next phase of the UDAN regional connectivity scheme. The meeting was attended by Minister of State Murlidhar Mohol, senior civil aviation officials, and MPs including Mysuru MP Yaduveer Chamaraja Wadiyar.