There are 34 Flying Training Organisations (FTOs), operating at 55 bases in the country, to impart flying training to cadets, the Parliament was told on Monday.Giving the information in the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question, Minister .
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday suspended operations at Redbird Flight Training Academy, one of India s largest flight schools, across all five of its training bases in the country.
This action was taken after five accidents involving the institute s planes in the past six months.
The DGCA announced it would conduct an audit of the academy s maintenance practices and also proficiency checks of the institute s flight instructors before allowing it to resume operations.
The civil aviation ministry on Monday said there is no proposal to lease non-operational air strips to pilot training institutions for the purpose of training pilots.
Given the growth in the aviation sector it is expected that India is likely to require over 1,000 pilots per annum over the next five years. However, experts have said that the country lacks the adequate pilot training infrastructure to produce .