As per an assessment, India may need an additional 1,000 pilots every year over the next five years. India’s civil aviation regulatory body, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)’s which released statistics on the country’s pilot strength informed that fifteen per cent of the pilots in the country are women, which is three times the global average of five per cent.
As per the data released from various Indian scheduled airlines, a total of 244 pilots have been recruited in 2021. And, data estimates that India may need an additional 1,000 pilots every year over the next five years.
However, currently, there is no special programme in the government to encourage pilot training for women and backward classes including SCs/STs, the regulatory body said. As of now, India has 67 foreign pilots working with different air operators, it said.
According to the release, there are 35 DGCA-approved Flight Training Organisations (FTOs) in the country, operating at 53 bases.
The International Society of Women Airline Pilots’ report on gender equality in the aviation sector in 2021 underlined that at 12.4 per cent India ranked top in gender equality at the flight deck in 2021, followed by Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Germany, USA, UK, and New Zealand.
