Skill shortages threaten India’s aviation growth, industry calls for overhaul of training model

India’s rapidly expanding aviation sector risks running into a severe skills bottleneck unless training capacity, funding models and regulatory frameworks are urgently reworked, industry leaders warned during a roundtable on flying training and skilling in aviation on day two of Wings India 2026 at Begumpet Airport on Thursday (January 29, 2026).

Speakers were unanimous that while aircraft orders and fleet expansion are accelerating, India’s ability to produce pilots, instructors and maintenance engineers at scale is lagging far behind demand.

Bhrigu Nath Singh, Vice Chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation Academy, said the challenge goes beyond producing pilots alone and must be addressed across the entire skills spectrum. He outlined the need to integrate ground-level, mid-level and advanced skilling with higher education, while also linking training with innovation and research and development. “The future lies in connecting skilling with universities and R&D, rather than treating it as a standalone activity,” he said.

Sreedhar Gopalan, Managing Director of CFM Training Centre at Safran, stressed that competency-based training and assessment is the only way forward to address the skill gap meaningfully.

This view was echoed by Sanjay Aditya Singh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jettwings, who said the absence of standardisation and the over-reliance on instructors has created structural weaknesses. In India, he said, pilots often become instructors only during periods when they are not flying, leading to inconsistency and gaps in training quality. Challenge in retaining the instructor was another aspect of the problem.

The scale of the problem was underlined by Hemanth D P, CEO of Asia Pacific Flight Training Academy, who pointed out that India currently issues around 1,800 to 2,000 pilot licences annually, with over half of that training being conducted overseas. “Despite having 45 flight training schools and over 300 aircraft, domestic capacity meets less than half of current requirements, this is a real problem,” he said.

Looking ahead, he said India will need 35,000 to 40,000 commercial pilots alone as more aircraft are inducted. While instructor shortages are beginning to ease, he warned that the shortage of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers remains “massive”. Infrastructure and funding constraints were also flagged as major barriers. Procuring training aircraft remains a challenge due to high capital costs, while inconsistent funding models limit expansion.

Ajay Surti, Associate Director at Pratt & Whitney, called for better utilisation of OEMs already operating in India by directly connecting them with training institutes. Captain Anchit Bharadwaj, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skynex Aero Private Limited, said training costs remain a major hurdle and advocated pooled funding and contributions from larger operators to make skilling financially viable.

The consensus from the roundtable was clear: skilling can no longer be treated as a support function. Without standardisation, modern training methods, institutional funding support and close collaboration between regulators, industry and academia, India’s aviation ambitions could be grounded by a shortage of skilled manpower.