Panel Calls for Faster Aviation Training

Hyderabad:A warning that India’s aviation growth will outstrip its training capacity unless skilling, regulation and finance change formed the core of the discussion at the roundtable on flying training and skilling in aviation at Wings India 2026, where industry leaders and regulators spoke about the systems that decide who gets trained, how quickly and at what cost.

Chaired by Prof. Bhrigu Nath Singh, Vice Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University, and moderated by Air Cmde Vipul Singh (retd.), Director of IGRUA, the discussion revolved around training squarely within questions of safety, access and preparedness.

“If we do what we’re doing today, it’s not going to work,” said Andrew Harrison, CEO, compliance and strategic initiatives at GMR Airports, pointing to nearly 1,900 aircraft on order for Indian airlines over the coming years. Airports, he said, often edge out flying schools as traffic rises, even though the same system later struggles to supply pilots.

“If we don’t have flying training schools, nobody will be flying in a commercial aircraft anywhere,” he said, pressing for regulatory flexibility and room within operational airports where trainees can learn under real conditions.

Christine Bohl, director, commercial training market at Boeing Global Services, said training too often sits as a compliance exercise rather than a safety control. “It all needs to come back to safety,” she said, arguing that training outcomes must be tied more closely to safety data so corrective action happens before incidents. Bohl also flagged the narrowness of the current pipeline. Many young people, particularly in remote regions, do not see aviation as attainable. “Most of them have never seen an airplane. They don’t believe it’s a path that they can take,” she said.

Questions of cost and capacity soon converged. Joel M. Davidson, CEO of AeroGuard Flight Training Centre, said flying schools largely survive on promoter capital. “There is no banking finance. Every single airplane is bought by the promoter’s own funds,” he said.

He warned that aircraft remain idle not just because of pilot shortages but due to a lack of licensed aircraft maintenance engineers, even as instructor availability improves. Lengthy approval chains, he added, from initial permissions and clearances to registration and airworthiness certification, delay aircraft induction by months and compress training schedules.

The panel also exposed fault lines on education pathways. Bharathi V, speaking from an industry HR perspective, argued that skilling must cover undergraduate, postgraduate and mid-career stages, including movement from defence to civil aviation roles. Captain Anchit Bhardwaj, founder and CEO of SkyNex Aero, pushed back. “I don’t think graduation is a requisite,” he said, cautioning that added degrees increase time and cost without clear value for core flying roles.

Closing the session, Prof. Singh acknowledged the concerns raised and placed them within a wider national need. “The problems raised are genuine, and they can be solved very effectively,” he said. Skilling, he noted, spans entry-level roles to advanced areas such as cyber security, AI and data science for aviation systems, and no single institution can meet that spread alone. Regulation, he added, must allow flexibility while guarding safety.

Representatives from Airbus, Pratt and Whitney, Tecnam, Safran, AASSC, AAI and several training academies were present, underscoring how widely the strain is felt as India’s aviation expansion gathers pace.